Awaking and Arising
by dreamingfifi
Summary: Quoth Vermouth, "We can be both of God and Devil, since we are trying to raise the dead against the stream of time." Conan learns more about the horrible experiments the BO has been financing, and Ran dumps him. With new info, heartache, and Bourbon hot on his trail, he plans his final attack. Will he win, or become their newest specimen? [Act 1 Scene 9 - A Bee and an Orchid]
1. 起き上がり - Prologue

**Okiagari – Awaking and Arising**

"We can be both of God and Devil, since we are trying to raise the dead against the stream of time."  
–Vermouth

**Disclaimer**: I claim no legal rights to the Detective Conan/Meitantei Conan/Case Closed franchise, and I'm making no money off of this work.

**Beta Reader**: Fluehatraya

**Warnings**: Gore, death, a few original characters, and a zombie. The prologue is a good sample of the height that the gore and violence will reach in this story. If this prologue makes you uncomfortable, you probably shouldn't read on. It doesn't get much more dark and graphic than this, and there is no sexual violence in this story, but we're going to dark, scary places. You've been warned.

**About the Title**: The term 'Okiagari' (起き上がり) is usually used when talking about dolls that are weighted at one end. When they are rolled on the ground, they always end up sitting upright. This term can be used to describe any inanimate object that behaves in a similar manner. It's made from two verbs, 'okiru' (起きる) - 'to wake up' and 'agaru' (上がる) – 'to rise up under one's own power'.

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

I awake. I arise.

Blood pools about my feet. It's mine. My body is in pieces, and I pick those up and stuff them back in. I can't do much about the blood though. The people around me – they know what I am. They wanted me like this, until they were trapped in a small room with me. No sympathy for the cowards. They fall apart and die as I take pieces I need. The rest are opened for their blood. There's one above, where I can't reach. The ash from its cigarette falls into the small room. Humans are dangerous creatures, more dangerous to themselves than anything else.

A soft breath, from the ground. One of them is still alive, and uninjured. It's small. Sometimes humans are small like this. Mostly they're big. The small ones aren't very dangerous. Held up to the faint light from above, it opens its eyes, and recognizes the human who had my body. This one liked the human. This one shared a name with the human. It looks like my old enemy, but only half of it. I tell it the name I shared with it, from long ago. It rejects it, because it's weak and missing half of itself. I hold the frightened halfling close, and make certain my only enemy and ally can't get away.

I fall. I sleep.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Hello fair readers! I'm dreamingfifi, and I'm a sometimes author and most of the time linguist. For author notes, I figured I'd do something a little different than what normally people do… which is chat about daily stuff or give translations. I'm going to talk about the linguistic concepts (plus some anthropology?) and fun language bits that I got to play with in writing this story!

A main reason for that is because this story is already finished. I wrote it for NaNoWriMo and am posting the chapters weekly. The normal chatter as the story grows before the readers' eyes wouldn't really work here. Also, I wrote this story with the idea that the reader wouldn't have to know any Japanese. I'm using no honorifics, no phrases, nothing that isn't clearly defined in the text itself. Therefore – no translation notes, which is actually weird for me because I normally write for the LotR fandom, and have extensive Elvish translations all over the place.

The whole, "I'm not going to use Japanese in this fanfic set in Japan" thing actually stems from a pet peeve of mine. See… I speak Japanese. I studied it for 5 years in college, even learned how to do some classical Japanese translation and interpreting grass writing and 変体漢文 texts (a specialty of my professor's). My audience, however, doesn't speak Japanese. I'm not going to confuse my audience by expecting them to know the complex honorific systems or casual Japanese phrases. It's like the first time I tried to watch a poorly translated Korean Drama. I had no clue what was going on much of the time because I was expected to have some competence in a language I'd never dealt with before. So, no, not doing that to my readers.

When I used Elvish in my stories in the past, it was with the intention of not being understood by the reader. The characters would be faced with a language they didn't know, and we'd be seeing that language from their perspective – a mass of unfamiliar letters and words, therefore confusing and frightening the characters and making it easier to be in the characters' shoes. I will use this tactic later on in the story, but not with Japanese because the characters all speak it.

I love linguistics and want to interest other people in it. Personally, I think it's very useful to learn about as a writer, possibly more than literary criticism. Understanding how human language works makes it easier to manipulate, and it makes it easier for me to manipulate my own influences to make a writing style that I want for a story. Maybe you'll find it helpful too?

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	2. Act 1 Scene 1 - 熊島 'Bear Island'

Act 1 Scene 1 - 熊島 [Kumajima] 'Bear Island'

* * *

Two sets of footsteps echoed up the stairwell. One set light, but causing the stairs to creak. The other louder, but not making the stairs creak as much. Sonoko's chipper voice was amplified by the narrow staircase. Deduction: Ran and Sonoko were arriving. Ran's height and muscle mass made her deceptively heavy for her slim build, and her considerable strength and agility allowed her to walk nimbly, with little sound.

Another set of footsteps joined them, light, rapid, little squeaking in the stairs… Probably Masumi Sera. She's smaller than Ran, and also had nimble feet from years of self-taught martial arts.

Conan looked up from his little kiddy homework, to watch the girls enter. First Ran and Sonoko, then a slightly winded Sera gave their hails and respectful "Pardon the intrusion"s.

Once shoes were removed and stowed away, Sonoko darted around giving out tickets from a wad of them in her purse. "Surprise!" she exclaimed. The tickets were too wide for train tickets, and the end of the Japan Air's logo sticking out. One was sticking out of Ran's bookbag, and Sera's grin meant that Sera likely had received one too, though Sera grinning wasn't exactly an unusual occurrence.

"Where are we flying to?" he asked.

She dropped one onto the table, and skipped over to Kogorou's desk to drop off another. "We," she paused, likely for dramatic effect, "are going to an island resort in Kumajima, for four days!"

Kumajima… there are hundreds of small islands in Japan. The name "Kumajima" sounded suspiciously like "bear island", which hopefully wasn't named for its inhabitants.

Kogorou looked up from the horse racing statistics in the newspaper, eyebrows raised. "Any particular reason this time?"

Sonoko laughed, not entirely convincingly. "Well, you see… it's a light family and friends get together, and you guys are my friends. I wanted to take Ran, but she can't leave Conan behind, and since Masumi doesn't have any family with her, there needs to be some sort of chaperone for the lot of us troublesome girls."

Kogorou made a vaguely affirmative grunt.

Sonoko spun around and grabbed Ran's hands, doing a little dance. How much caffeine was in her system? She was normally quite expressive, but this was a little more hyper than usual.

"Is there something special happening at Kumajima?" Conan asked.

"Not really." She chittered on, ignoring Conan. "You guys need to get packed! Remember, it's a lot warmer down there, so light summer clothes and swimsuits are best! Also, we leave tomorrow, at 4 AM." Before anyone could respond, she started pushing everyone out the door, humming.

Conan followed them up the stairs to the living quarters to get packed. He wondered if perhaps a Kaitou KID heist had been announced there, but if that'd been the case, she'd probably have said so already.

He didn't have much clothing, so his packing was finished quickly. He even slipped in extra batteries for his gadgets. He could hear Sonoko singing a nostalgic tune in Ran's bedroom down the hall. He dragged his suitcase into the kitchen and listened to her for a while, then his stomach churned with fear. She was singing 'Nanatsu no Ko', the song that the Black Organization's phone number was based on. He charged into Ran's room. The door was open, and the girls were helping Ran pick outfits. Masumi was arguing for a loose pair of shorts that would facilitate more active adventures on the island, and Sonoko was waving about a bright sun dress. Ran was sitting between them, staring at her already stuffed suitcase, mumbling something about space for souvenirs. Finally she snatched them both from her friends' hands, and stuffed them both in, and zipped the suitcase shut.

"Where have you heard that tune?" Conan asked, trying to stop his knees from shaking.

"I dunno," Sonoko shrugged. "I've just heard it around, and it gets stuck in my head." She pulled a low-cut shirt out of the closet and held it up. "But what about-" Sonoko began.

"Nope, we're done," Ran snapped. Did Ran not want to go? "What's special about that song, Conan?"

He couldn't tell her that. Time to change the subject. "So," Conan said from the doorway, regulating his breath. "Why are we going?"

The three girls exchanged glances. "I think it's alright to tell him," Masumi said, shrugging. "It's not like some horrible secret or anything."

Sonoko sighed, the over-the-top excitement gone. "You know how I'm the last Suzuki kid who hasn't run away to be an artist? My grandparents are coming, and they're really putting on the pressure to join the family business. They even have the university and the degree I'll be getting planned out."

Ran frowned. "They don't seem to care about what Sonoko wants at all. Sonoko is going to tell them no, and we're going to give her moral support, okay?"

Yikes, that didn't sound fun at all. The old generations were weird about stuff like this, and with the wealth and power the Suzuki's had, it was easy to see why they wanted to keep it in the family. It wasn't a very good recipe for a happy family though. Conan gave a Kamen Yaiba salute and shouted, "You can count on me!"

That might have been a bit over the top, in hindsight. The girls all laughed at him and poked his cheeks, cooing about how cute little kids are.

Then they left to help Masumi choose a wardrobe for the trip, with Sonoko making the vigorous oath, "No one who sees you this weekend will have any doubt that you are a girl!"

Masumi looked a little uncomfortable at the idea, but didn't protest.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

In this chapter, you may have noticed that the girls gave a greeting upon entering the apartment. English speakers generally don't come from cultures that have this tradition, at least not when entering a home along with the owner/person who lives there. The phrase that Sonoko and Sera would be saying is 「お邪魔します」or "Ojamashimasu", which means something akin to "Sorry to be imposing on you," or "Pardon the intrusion." It may have had a different meaning in the past, ("I'll be bothering you!") but it's now just what you say when you enter another person's home, like saying "thank you" or "you're welcome" or "how do you do?". These phrases have lost their old meanings to become purely functional social phrases, independent of grammar or sentence structure.

You'll also notice that they take off their shoes at the door – another common Japanese practice, but not one near as exclusive to Japan, because it's often considered polite to not track mud all over another person's house. I don't know about the rest of the world, but up here in Montana, it's common for the front door to open into a "mud room", which will have a space to hang your coats and hats and take off your dirty shoes before entering a house. Growing up on the ranch, we had a large mud room that had heaters set up to dry mittens and boot linings on during the winter. Now that I'm living in a "big city" (what counts as one in Montana, anyways) I make do with a short corridor with a closet and welcome mat, since I don't have to worry about people coming in covered in hay and manure. In Japan, this "mud room" is called a 「沓脱」 or "kutsunugi" (the whole entryway/foyer is called a 「玄関」 or "genkan"), which includes a 「靴箱」 or "kutsubako", a rack or shelf for putting shoes away in.

Because I'm not using Japanese phrases all over the place, I'm trying to give the reader a sense of the setting by including Japanese customs instead. This is actually a running theme, and I'm planning on writing more about this.

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	3. Act 1 Scene 2 – 探偵 'Detective'

Act 1 Scene 2 – 探偵 [Tantei] 'Detective'

* * *

After too little sleep and a groggy flight, Conan found himself staring miserably at the ocean. It was barely warm enough to play in yet. With all of the bustle and commotion the Suzuki family and their servants brought, his grand plans for reading his dad's latest novel, which hadn't been published yet, had to go by the wayside. At least it was the off-season, and there weren't crowds of tourists yet. He observed Sonoko playing with the bracelets on her arms. She was on edge, and her grandparents hadn't shown up yet. He shuffled down the beach, following the edge of the water.

The resort was a small, homey one, meant for five or six families at most, with a restaurant by the beach. The forested cove separated the resort from the small tourist-town nearby. The other side of the cove was wilderness, and the kind receptionist girl had cheerfully warned Conan to not wander in it without his "daddy". Mr. Mouri was still sleeping off the booze he'd needed to survive the flight.

There was a tree with low-hanging branches that dipped into the sea in his way. He'd either have to get wet going around it or go through it, and he wasn't wearing swim trunks. He slipped between the leaves, and found himself in a quiet, isolated natural room. He'd have to remember to get the novel out of his pack and go there when he wanted to read. He climbed over a big root, and his foot landed on something that was warm, soft, and definitely not sand. He lost his balance and fell back with a yelp on the sand. His voice wasn't the only one either. A drowsy, dark-skinned head with sun-bleached, tangled hair popped over the wood and loomed over Conan.

"This is my spot. Go find your own!" He was a teen, roughly the age that Conan should be, but perhaps a little younger. He also had a touch of a foreign accent, though he didn't look particularly foreign. Mixed descent, perhaps? His T-shirt was sunbleached, starting to form holes along its seams, and several sizes too large. It once had been green with a logo across the front, but that was long gone now. Oddly, other than the smell of seawater, there wasn't much of a smell coming from him, and his worn out clothing wasn't terribly dirty. He was wearing clothes 'til they fell apart, but still keeping himself groomed somehow.

"I didn't know anyone was here!" Conan snapped back, pulling himself up. His elbow stung, and he flinched.

The boy grabbed Conan's arm, lifting it up to look at the injury. His own arms had tanlines where his shirt-sleeves ended. His hand was skinny, but not all skin and bone, indicating a small but adequate diet. "You're a tourist, right?"

Conan nodded.

"You should get this looked at. Just remember that this tree is my bedroom, and don't tell anyone that I'm sleeping here, okay?"

So he was sleeping here. Living on the beach, a homeless teen, that meant… "Why? Are you a runaway?"

The teen nodded. "Our secret, right?"

Couple that with the foreign accent and… "Are you an illegal?"

He froze and looked down, letting his hair fall over his eyes. Common body language of discomfort, distancing and hiding from one's conversation partner. That could mean the next words out of his mouth would be lies. "Something like that." These could also be a response to perceived aggression, coupled with his age, which meant probably running from abuse. "Why are you-"

"Are you hiding from someone?"

The boy let go of his arm, and vanished behind the branch. Bingo, this one was easy to read.

"I won't tell anyone if you let me come here and read," he said, putting on his sugariest child-impression.

There was no response for a while, and Conan could hear the boy gathering things and putting them in a plastic bag. Finally he clambered over the root, a plastic trash bag with all of his belongings slung over his shoulder, stuffing an inhaler into his pocket with his right hand. "How did you know all that? I don't recognize you. Have we met?"

Conan grinned confidently. "We haven't met before. Your clothes and hair and the fact that you're sleeping here tells me that you're homeless. Your age tells me probably a runaway, and your accent tells me you've been learning Japanese informally through immersion for a few years. I'm Conan Edogawa, a 探偵!"

"A _tantei_?" the boy asked. "I don't know that word."

"In English, it's '_detective'_," Conan said in his best English. As he'd thought, not a formal education in Japanese, and probably not someone who was listening to the news.

"_A bit young, aren't you?"_ the boy replied in English. The accent for the first part sounded American, for the shortened I and cropped T in 'bit', raised A, and heavy shwa in 'young', but the dropped R and distinct T and Y made it sound British.

Conan beamed his cheekiest kid-grin.

The teen stretched out his right hand – scars and callouses from handling rope – probably fishing nets, considering the setting. "I'm Areku. Pleased to meet you," he said, switching back to Japanese. "Do you want me to leave, or will you let me stay here?"

"I'll let you stay here. I just want a quiet place to read."

"And you won't tell anyone about me?"

"About that…" Conan smiled up at the teen. "Maybe if you told me about your problem I could help? I may know people who could help you, perhaps remove the danger or at least help you hide better."

The boy shook his head. "You won't tell anyone about me, right?" His voice was louder, more agitated.

"But-" Conan started in his whiny-kid impression.

"_They'd kill you!_" he said in English, grabbing Conan's shoulders to make him look directly at into his dark eyes. Then he switched back to Japanese, his voice low. This was fear, genuine fear and anger, perhaps even terror. Though it was possible this was an attempt to scare him away from needling for more information. Or both. "They'd take me back and kill you and anyone that they think knows about me so please! Don't tell anyone."

So, not simple abuse. Had he been kidnapped? A kid escaped from a child-trafficking ring? If the yakuza was involved, he probably had good reason to be scared. Bringing down a child-trafficking ring would be a fun project during vacation.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Have you ever spoken with someone who's speaking English (or your language) as a second language? If you have, you'll notice that the times that they switch back to their own language (called code-switching) aren't when doing the easy phrases, like "hello" or "What?" Code-switching usually happens when the speaker doesn't know how to say something, or isn't confident that they know how to say something. So, when I was writing this scene, I had Areku be competent on normal conversational speech, but confused when it came to specialized vocabulary that he wouldn't be familiar with, like "private eye". Private eyes aren't usually hired to chase off homeless kids, after all.

Another time that code-switching is common is when under stress. When Areku starts panicking that Shinichi will blow his cover, he switches back to English. Luckily, Shinichi is close to bilingual in Japanese and English (as evidenced by him being able to identify James Black's English accent) and is still able to understand him.

You can compare this to Jodie Starling and her attempt to fake difficulty speaking Japanese. She uses a lot of English gap fillers (um, oh yes, okay), but she's able to get across complex concepts and use specialized difficult vocabulary with ease, which is why Shinichi figures out she's faking. Point to Goushou Aoyama for getting this right!

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	4. Act 1 Scene 3 – 帰りたい家'Home to Return to'

Act 1 Scene 3 – 帰りたい家 [Kaeritai Ie] 'Home to Return to'

* * *

"Okay, I won't tell anyone. But don't the people around here already know you?"

Areku let go of Conan's shoulders and slumped against the root. "You're a really nosey kid. You're not going to drop this, are you?"

Grinning, Conan shook his head.

"Fine." The teen wasn't meeting his eyes. He probably was going to try to lie again. "I'm an orphan, got adopted by some nasty, very powerful people who hurt me, and I ran away. If they find me I'll have to go back, and I don't want to. That's all you need to know. Happy?"

The story was vague enough that it was probably true, but it was too vague to be of any use. Conan pouted. "I figured that part out already. What's your original nationality?"

"Don't you need to get your scrape looked at?" Areku snapped. Evading the question.

"You're English is really hard to place. At first I thought you're an American, but then it sounded more British. Where did you learn English?"

Areku grabbed Conan's hand. "I'm either taking you back to the resort for some first aid, or to the doctor. The people at the resort have caught me sorting through their trash a few too many times, so they really don't like me. The doctor is a nice person though, and she helps me out a lot. I'd rather take you there, if you don't mind."

"Okay," Conan said, letting himself be walked into the forest. "Where did-"

"India, okay? I was born in a small village along the border between Pakistan and Tibet that doesn't exist anymore, and I learned English in India. Happy?" He glanced sideways at Conan, observed him for a moment, then sighed. "You're never going to be satisfied, are you?"

"Nope!" Cheeky-kid impression again. "Did you spend a lot of time in the US? My parents are there right now, and I go back and forth a lot. That's why, when I speak English, it sounds American. England-English is a little difficult to understand sometimes."

His eyebrows raised. "Your parents aren't here?"

"Nope! I've been living with friends of the family for the past two years, actually. I'm with them here."

"You should be careful," Areku said suddenly. "Kids on their own are often seen as disposable, especially by people who aren't directly related to them."

"Ran and Uncle Kogorou would never dispose of me," Conan retorted. "I'm Ran's little brother now; and she'd never let Uncle Kogorou throw me away."

"Okay, okay, sorry I said anything." He'd effectively evaded the topic of himself, Conan realized. This one was easy to read, but slippery.

They stopped at a picket fence that hadn't been treated by any stains or paint, and therefore had become quite broken down and clearly rotted through in places.

Areku crouched by a hole and twisted aside one of the panels to make enough room to squeeze through. He beckoned to Conan.

"There's some things you should know, just to make sure everything goes smoothly. My name in town is Areku Kusanagi." A common surname, coupled with a weird first name. Researching him would be difficult, especially if they didn't know the Kanji, or Chinese characters, for his first name.

"Okay. I won't say anything to get you in trouble."

"Thanks."

They crawled through the opening, into a small Japanese garden that was slightly overgrown. Dead leaves floated in the artificial pool.

"Areku," Conan whispered. Areku was peeking through a window into the house. "Are you sure you're allowed to do this?"

Areku smiled, and tapped on the glass. "Just checking to make sure she's not busy."

The window slid open with little noise, as though it had been opened often. A woman in her forties stuck her head out. "Alec dear? I thought I gave you enough medication for a whole month. Ah," she noticed Conan. "Who's this? Why don't you introduce me?"

"Dr. Fumika Nishiyama, this is Conan Edogawa. He fell and hurt his arm at the beach."

"Oh dear," she said, sighing. "Come on in, and I'll fix that up for you." Her head vanished from Conan's sight, and the window closed. Areku led the way to the back door.

"Alec dear?" Conan asked. "So Areku is Alec in English?"

Areku blushed. "Yeah, she knows my English name. She treats me like a son."

This doctor was probably responsible for Areku's good health and relative cleanliness. She may have been letting him wash his clothes and take bathes at the clinic, and slipping him the inhaler he needed.

The door slid open, and she waved them in. There was a staircase going up that was corded off, likely leading to her living quarters. She led them to a small room on the ground floor with a cot in it, and gathered some bandaids and disinfectant from a cupboard.

"So, Mr. Edogawa, have you met Alec before?" she asked smiling as she gently cleaned the scrape.

"He was amazing," Areku interrupted. "He was able to figure out all about me just by seeing me for a few minutes! He's a tantei."

"Oh really?" her eyebrows arched. "Boy, you know how to keep secrets, right?" Her tone was suddenly sharp.

Conan nodded. "Areku told me I shouldn't tell anyone about him, so I won't. I'm really good at keeping secrets."

"Be careful about being too nosey. That can get you into trouble."

He wasn't certain if that was a threat or not, but Alec said, "Don't worry about me Dr. Fumika. He's just a little kid, and I'm letting him hang out in my tree in exchange for his silence."

"I already know about being careful where I stick my nose," Conan interjected. "Whatever it is really scares Areku, so I know it should scare me too."

The doctor began applying the antiseptic. "Good. Then maybe you could convince this fine young man to let me make him my son?"

Areku looked down, and didn't say anything.

"I agree," Conan said. "He should live with you. He'd be safer that way. Whoever is looking for him won't think to look in families; they'll probably look for people living alone. Also, he could help out with the things that make your back hurt."

Areku bolted and vanished through the hole in the picket fence.

Dr. Nishiyama sighed. "He'll come around eventually. As soon as he figures out they aren't after him anymore."

"Do you know who they are?" Conan asked.

"No," she said. "He never told me. I think though," she paused. "I think I shouldn't tell you anything else. If he gets too frightened, he'll pull a vanishing act for me too." She laid the bandaid over the scrape, and patted it. "All done. Do you know your way home?"

Conan nodded. "If I go through the back fence, I can follow the trail to the tree-house, and from there I'll follow the shore back to the resort."

"I'll lead him back," Areku said from the doorway. His eyes were a little red, and he kept them fixed on the ground.

"Good. Don't let him get lost!"

"Yes ma'am," he said quietly, and held out his hand for Conan to grab.

As they ambled through the woods, taking a different shortcut to the restaurant, Conan tried to break the silence. "Sorry, if I pushed too much."

"It's okay. I know you just want to help."

"I just don't know why you won't move in with that nice lady. She likes you a lot."

"Truth is," Areku said, "I'd really like to stay here, and live with her as her son. But I can't stay anywhere for too long. If I did, I'd be putting her in danger. Also there's all of that paperwork, and I'd have to explain where I came from. That alone might alert them to where I am."

"You think they're in the government?" Conan asked.

"I don't know that, but being in the government's structure makes it easier for them to find me. If I'm homeless, and not part of the system, I don't have a paper trail for them to find me."

Conan looked down, studying the ground, wishing he had a soccer ball to help him muddle through his emotions. He could have done something like that too. Perhaps Ran and everyone else he loved and cared for could be a lot safer. But, he couldn't passively hide. He had to take the offensive. If they weren't stopped, they'd keep tearing apart people's lives, and there was no way he could live with that. "Isn't that the same as letting them win?" Conan turned his face up, looking right at the teen's brown face. "What if they hurt other people, because you don't do anything?"

Areku shook his head, eyes also downcast. "I don't have that kind of power. Besides, governments and crime syndicates, there isn't much difference between them. It'd be just as dangerous for me to fall into their hands. It's better for everyone if I live quietly, out of sight."

"That makes no sense." Conan kept staring up at the teen's face, but Areku kept his eyes averted. Conan was getting angry. "How could it be better for everyone if they're still hurting people?"

"It's not your decision. You know nothing about my situation."

"Then explain it!"

"_No_." Areku refused to speak the rest of the way back.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

I love naming things. I have this huge website devoted to it: . There's a story behind every name I come up with.

アレク - Areku. If you've heard a lot of Japanese names, you may have noticed that this one sounds a little off… a little weird. That's because it's not a Japanese name, as we discovered in this scene. Areku started out as Alex, which is really difficult for Japanese speakers to wrap their tongues around. It'd end up sounding something like this: Arekkusu. So, Alex cut the S off the name, making it Alec. But, there was another force at play – Alec's own lack of competency in Japanese. Being new to it, he couldn't hear the double consonant (something that English lacks), and he said his name "Areku" instead of "Arekku". After a while, it stuck.

草薙 - Kusanagi. Generic. Bland. Common. Not as bad as Nakamura, but pretty boring. Kinda like "Anderson". He chose this name after being much more fluent in Japanese, probably off of someone he met while bumming rides from island to island. Ironically, it means something like "mowing down the enemy like grass". Not a fitting name for this cowering child, but definitely something appealing to a teenage boy's desire to be badass.

西山 – Nishiyama. It means "western mountain". Her family is from the mountains that form the spine of mainland Japan. She moved down south to the islands after going to school.

文香 - Fumika. Because she was the second child, her name has "fu" in it, a play on the Japanese number "futatsu". It's common for Japanese names to have puns based on their birth order or their date of birth. You'll notice this in the name "Shinichi" too. He's his parents' first child, and his name has the number 1 – "ichi" in it.

A number rarely found in Japanese names is the number 4, because it's considered unlucky. This is because one of the pronunciations of the number is "shi" which sounds like the word for "death" – 死. I don't know if this is intentional or not, by Shinichi's name can be a pun for "death-day" (or "fourth day", seeing as his birthday is May 4th), if you divide the words "shi-nichi" instead of "shin-ichi." One pun I know is intentional is having Shinichi be read as "one truth", which matches the character nicely.

You also won't see the number 9 (ku) referenced in names often, because it sounds like the word for "suffering" - 苦.

Next time you're reading/watching a piece of Japanese literature, have a little fun and research the names. You'll never know what crazy layers of puns you'll find!

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	5. Act 1 Scene 4 – 馳走 'Feast'

Act 1 Scene 4 – 馳走 [Chisou] 'Feast'

* * *

Conan was late for lunch, and after the past few weeks, or rather, the past two years, they knew better than to ignore it.

"Conan! Where are you?" Ran and Sonoko called. Their voices together made their call the loudest, and first that Conan and Areku heard.

Kogorou Mouri's call was a little more colorful, but held the same meaning.

It sounded like everyone was out searching for Conan. They aimed for Ran and Sonoko, who were looking in the garden behind their cottage.

"I found him!" Ran spotted them first, and ran over to meet them. "There you are! And who is this?"

He grinned up to Ran, turning his child-act up a few notches. "Ran, this is Areku. I fell, and he took me to the doctor, so we should give him lunch!" He showed off the big bandaid on his elbow.

"You took Conan to the doctor?" Ran asked. "Thank you so much!"

Areku look bashfully at the ground and said, "It wasn't any trouble. You don't need to repay me."

"I disagree," Sonoko said, grabbing Areku's hand. "Come on, everyone's already waiting." She started dragging him towards the restaurant.

"He-HERE? There's no way… I can't…" Areku stuttered, his Japanese failing him. Ran took up the rear-guard, and together they marched barefooted, raggedy Areku into the fancy restaurant, and sat him down between them. Conan took the seat on the other side of Ran. The waiters, who were busy seating the rest of the group gave him icy glares. "They don't like me here!" Areku whispered.

"I'm Sonoko Suzuki, and you are?" Sonoko asked, leaning closer.

"Umm…" he turned red under his tan. "I'm Areku Kusanagi." His voice was almost a whisper.

"So how did you save Foureyes?" She got a little closer, and Areku leaned a little away.

"I just led him to the doctor and led him back here, that-that's all."

"Give the poor boy some space," Sonoko's mother barked. "He's a small town boy; he isn't used to Tokyo girls." Her tone shifted dramatically into a soft, welcoming lilt as she addressed Areku. "We're very glad that you looked after little Conan. He always manages to find himself some sort of trouble."

"You've got that right," Kogorou said loudly from the other end of the table. "He's been shot, blown up, kidnapped… all within the last year!"

His dark eyes went wide. "Really? Being a detective must be really dangerous!"

Ran sat down on the other side of Sonoko, her new place setting ready.

"Normally Ran does the rescuing," Sonoko giggled. "She's like his personal bodyguard! She's a Karate champion, and she's won all kinds of awards!"

"You're exaggerating," Ran said, smiling.

One of the waiters took Mr. Suzuki, Sonoko's father, aside and whispered something to him. Areku noticed, and made himself smaller.

"Is it true that you're homeless, boy?" he asked, and the entire table fell silent, and stared at Areku. His sun-bleached, tattered clothing and messy hair suddenly seemed important.

"If… if you want me to go…" Areku said, not looking up, tensing.

"No, we don't want you to go," Mr. Suzuki said, sitting back in his chair. He tapped the waitress and said, "Tell them to get a cot ready for this young man. He can sleep in Mr. Mouri's room along with young Conan."

Areku jumped up and bowed, saying, "Thank-you very very very much sir!"

"Sit down boy, and order something to eat," Mr. Suzuki said, resting his hands on his large stomach.

He sat down quickly, blushing even more. A frowning waitress handed him a menu with a sharp "Here." He looked at it a moment and set it down, not saying anything.

"What's wrong?" hissed Ran into his ear.

"I can't…" he mumbled, hunching over, "…read it."

"Oh my gosh," Sonoko said quietly, her hand over her mouth. "I didn't even think about that. You don't go to school, do you?"

He shook his head.

"Well then, we'll read it too you. Problem solved!" Sonoko grinned. Ran put the menu back in his hands. The two of them leaned over a madly blushing illiterate Areku, explaining the menu and giving their recommendations.

After ordering, Areku held onto the menu, and started asking about the kanji readings. "That really says, 'Lightly roasted chicken with bamboo'?" he pointed to the phrase he was referring too. "Because that looks like 'the garden bird is burning bamboo' to me."

"You can read Kanji?" Sera piped up, brows furrowed. "I thought you couldn't read?"

He shrugged. "I can read Kanji – in Chinese, not Japanese. My Chinese isn't Mandarin either – it's a dialect that I've never seen anyone else outside of China speak, so I think it's non-standard."

"You come from Tibet, right? Did you learn Chinese from the soldiers?" Conan asked, thinking of the history of the region.

The teen bit his lip, thinking. "The soldiers didn't teach us anything. There was a school that we all had to go to. The teachers were trying to teach us Mandarin, but they themselves didn't speak it natively, so I learned that strange Chinese instead."

"So when did you learn English?" Conan asked.

"He speaks English too?" Sera asked, studying him.

"Yeah," Areku self-consciously fiddled with the corner of his napkin. "We ran away to the south, in India, and we learned English at the orphanage, because rich foreigners would want to adopt kids who could speak English."

"So, how did you end up in Japan?" Sonoko asked.

He winced. "Let's talk about something else."

Sera caught Conan's eye and gave a perplexed frown. Conan nodded.

Areku went back to amusing his hosts by reading the Kanji in Chinese, the way he knew them, then retranslating the phrases into Japanese. Their end of the table was quite lively, and the meal lasted for a whole two hours. By the end, they'd gotten used to the scraggly teen.

Looking at the skill that Areku had for manipulating the group, and endearing himself to them, Conan figured he was witnessing Areku's survival strategy. Be non-threatening, make them feel in control, make them laugh… make them want to keep you around them. Conan must have disrupted his strategy by frightening him earlier. It was probably second nature to him now. First nature would be hiding.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Did you catch Areku's lie? Sera and Shinichi did. If you wish to figure it out, I suggest looking into the recent history of communist China. A friend of mine speaks Chinese (lived there for a while too) and has a very long rant about human rights abuses happening in China right now. The politics on this is quite touchy at the moment.

Currently, the Chinese government is trying to pretend that they aren't multi-cultural. This is particularly problematic because large portions of the population, especially in the western parts of China, are ethnically, linguistically, and culturally not Han-Chinese. To solve this problem, the government is oppressing them and forcing their children to learn Mandarin Chinese, kinda like what the American government did to the indigenous populations of North America once they'd rounded them up and killed everyone who fought back. It's a horrific racist mess.

I can see what they're trying to do – make it easier for the entire country to get along by everyone having a language in common. But, the cost is utterly destroying other people's lives, cultures, personal dignity, and heritage; making people be ashamed of who they are and disenfranchising anyone who doesn't comply. We've seen the results from the colonization efforts. We know that it's a horrible mistake to do this. Hopefully, the Chinese government will figure this out before it's too late, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ugh, I promise that the next note won't be so depressing!

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	6. Act 1 Scene 5 – 嘘吐け 'Liar'

Act 1 Scene 5 – 嘘吐け [Usotsuke] 'Liar'

* * *

After dinner, Sonoko's father took the boy aside and spoke to him quietly, with a concerned expression on his face. The teen kept his head bowed, staring at the floor, and eventually nodded. Mr. Suzuki tried to give him a hearty clap on the shoulder, but the teen flinched away from it, and scurried to catch up with Masumi, who was waiting at the door.

"_I'm not a charity case_," Conan heard him grumble in English, but he kept his cheerful expression on.

The sun had heated up the air quite a bit, and the humidity outside the air conditioned building was like stepping into a sauna. "This is sooooo nice," Sonoko said, "going outside and actually feeling warmer. I bet we could even go swimming!"

Areku laughed. "The water is still pretty cold. The currents here come from the north, so the water isn't as nice as the air, at least not until summer."

"Then we should go shopping!" Sonoko countered. "You know your way around town, right? You can show us where everything is, and we can buy you some new clothes…"

Areku scowled. "I don't need any new clothes. I don't need any things either. Just because I don't have much doesn't mean I need more."

"Oh," said Ran. "Did we insult you? Sorry, that wasn't what we meant. We just want to hang out with you and get to know you more, and thank you for helping Conan."

"I know," he sighed. "You've already thanked me for helping Conan with the meal and bed. Over thanked, I think." The girl's faces drooped, and Areku quickly said, "But I do want to hang out and get to know you better! Just not in a way that ends up with me having more than I can carry in my bag."

Sonoko looked puzzled. "How to socialize with someone that doesn't involve buying things…"

"While you think on that, I'll grab my bag and stow it in the room you want me in," Areku said, starting off at a brisk jog towards the shoreline.

"Wait up!" Sera called, "I have some questions to ask you."

"Me too!" said Conan, starting up after them.

Once they were out of earshot of the others, Areku slowed to a walk and let them catch up to him.

Conan looked up at Sera, the two of them building a strategy on the spot.

"You know," Sera began. "The Chinese government has been mandating the use of Mandarin Chinese for schooling, even forcing Uyghers and other ethnic minorities to learn it. They bring in teachers from the big cities in the East, where they speak Mandarin natively."

"Not to mention, the Chinese government simplified the Kanji to make them easier to read and write. Those words would all have been unintelligible to him," Conan added.

"Why would he lie about the place he came from?" Sera wondered out loud.

"Maybe because I don't want people to know where I came from," Areku said. He was hiding his eyes again, and his fists clenched. Fear and anger… mostly fear. They were breaking through his defenses. Time to close the noose.

"What would the harm in it be? If it was painful, I'd understand not wanting to talk about it, but why replace one sad story with another sad story?" Conan asked.

"Unless, knowing that sort of information is dangerous…" Sera guessed, stroking her chin as though trying to puzzle out some great mystery.

"Or he just wants to make fun of us," Conan said, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

Areku made a strangled growl and spun around to face them. "What the hell do you want from me?"

"You're in some kind of trouble," Conan looking out of the corner of his eye to Sera.

Taking the cue, Sera added, "We're detectives, and we can help."

"Now there's two of you?" Areku teared at his hair. "Are all Japanese kids obsessed with being detectives?"

"Don't change the subject. What sort of trouble are you in?" Sera said, looking him directly in the eye.

He evaded her glare, then spun and broke into a sprint towards his tree. Suddenly he ducked into the thick forest and vanished behind the veil of vegetation.

"Dammit," Sera cursed. "No choice but to follow him in there. Did you get an idea of its layout when he led you through last time?"

Conan shook his head. "I could recognize the path he took me on, but I don't know much else. It's dense in there."

They slipped into the forest, instantly being swallowed by the trees, losing all of the landmarks. The sun was lost to them, the canopy was so thick. There was a game trail where Areku had run into the forest. A few yards in, and it split into two trails, with no obvious signs pointing to the right path.

"Shall we split up? We can't get too far without hitting the town or the road, so getting completely lost is unlikely. We'll be able to cover more ground," Sera suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." He walked to the left, and Sera walked to the right.

A few twists and turns in and a newly bent branch told Conan he was probably going to right direction. Then a quiet whine, like a puppy dog confused over why its master was angry, confirmed Conan's suspicions.

Areku was slumped on the ground at the base of a tree. Spotting Conan, he said softly, "When people know something, their behavior changes. They act in accordance to that knowledge, and that alone is enough of a pattern for them to find me… and kill… everyone…"

This wasn't a normal crime syndicate. Normal syndicates could be bloody, but killing everyone would mean they wouldn't have people to do business with, which meant their goal wasn't business. A cult perhaps? "No one is that powerful, not without making a lot of enemies just as strong."

"They said they had people in the government."

"I could say I was the Emperor of Japan, but that wouldn't make it true."

"They were able to catch other people who ran away and kill them. Then they'd put their kids' to work in their place."

This pattern sounded suspiciously like the story of Shiho Miyano. It was worth the guess, at least. "These people, do they wear black?"

The teen looked up, his brows furrowed. "I hadn't really noticed any sort of color scheme. Why do you ask?"

Conan put back on his kid-face and smiled, "The people you were describing reminded me of some cases I saw when watching Uncle Mouri. They get rid of anyone they suspect of knowing anything, even business partners. Their hitmen wear black, but their spies don't, at least not often. Their scientists, at least Sherry," the teen winced at the name, "wears red."

Areku finally met Conan's eyes. They weren't focused on Conan but on some distant, horrible memory. "This Mouri person, he lets you know these things?" His jaw didn't move much when he talked. He'd tensed up. This guy was definitely connected to _them_ somehow.

"He doesn't know the cases are connected. I'm doing the investigation on my own. You don't have to blame him," Conan said quickly.

"Then what did they do to you?" The words were sharp, rapid, designed to turn the conversation around and distract him, make him stop needling.

Match this aggression, with aggression. Make him break, it doesn't matter if he's hurt, make him confess. He knew the name Sherry. He was connected to the Black Organization somehow. This chance couldn't be let go of, before the teen ran away again and vanished without a trace.

"They tried to kill me with _Sherlock_." If he knew about APTX 4869, and its nickname, derived from the Japanese pronunciation of "Sherlock" – "shyaarokku" and those numbers – "shi-ya-ro-ku", then he would have to have been intimately involved in its making.

The teen stared at him, eyes wide, mouth slightly open, body ridged. Confusion, no probably terror.

"You recognize it, don't you? Which means you're probably part of the team that developed it."

"Alive." The boy voice was shaking. "You're still…"

"They must really mess with their scientists heads."

"Wrong." His voice was small. "I wasn't making… _I'm not_…" he said in English, his Japanese failing him.

Conan frowned. They liked to isolate their scientists. Sherry had been raised in the organization for the sole purpose of working on their project. Another teen scientist like her wasn't impossible, though this guy hadn't seemed particularly intelligent. "Then what are you?"

The teen started shaking. His eyes weren't focused anymore, and the blood was draining from his face. His lips turned the color of the bloodless flesh, a pale yellow. This was getting dangerous. He might faint here, in the middle of the woods, and Conan couldn't carry him.

He stepped forward cautiously, and grabbed Areku's arm. Areku shuddered and shook off Conan's hand. "They won't find you. Tell me everything you know about them, and you can stay hidden. Just give me a way to contact you when I've rid the world of them."

The color was returning to his face, and he'd started breathing again. "If you fail, you'll be a lab rat. If they find out that it worked…"

"What worked? It's a poison, isn't it?"

The teen shook his head. "They want to make people like me."

"Like you? How?" Conan recalled something that Haibara had said, about never wanting to make a poison.

"Immortal." That was absurd. Then again, Vermouth had played the part of both Sharon and Chris Vineyard, and he and Haibara had become children again. He didn't understand the science necessary to believe this claim. He'd have to ask Haibara later. The teen drew his knees to his chest and covered his head with his palms, the fetal position. He seemed genuinely in distress, and didn't seem to be lying. Conan felt a pang of guilt. He'd have to help Areku feel safe again, perhaps hide him in Oosaka, with Hattori. Keeping such an important piece close at hand, in Tokyo, would probably be more dangerous, especially if they knew his present face and appearance.

Not hearing a response, Areku continued. "You could shoot me in the head, or chop my head off, and my pieces would come back together. I've been living like this for thousands of years, and every time I'm found, many people die. I can't be found. I _can not_ be found. And now you also…" his voice shook "… _can not_ be found." He suddenly lunged at Conan, knocking him to the ground. In one smooth motion, he was on top of the little chest, hand clamped over Conan's nose and mouth.

Conan was too shocked to struggle at first. This guy had seemed so passive, so weak, that he could turn violent so quickly hadn't occurred to him.

The teen started speaking. His words came out too fast, making his Japanese slightly slurred and his English accent more apparent. "You need to disappear, like I have. I'll show you how to live between the cracks. It'll be really hard, but you have to do it, because your existence alone means they'll keep trying, keep killing, keep fighting for this. They must not know it worked yet, which is good, that makes it easier." Conan choked on sweating palm on his face, trying to squirm out of its grasp. The teen was suffocating him, believing that he could survive it.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Japanese is classified as a Topic-Comment language. This means that you start a sentence by saying what you're talking about, then the rest of the sentence. We do this in English sometimes too, generally framed something like this:

In March, the snow melts into a vast sea of mud.  
My friend Cait, she speaks Mandarin Chinese.  
About going to work tomorrow, can't we call in sick?  
As for me, I like linguistics.

But, this isn't the primary structure of a sentence in English. Instead, we have "Subject Verb Object" and stick to that most of the time. In Japanese, you'd use a Topic-Comment structure first, in a way that would sound awkward directly translated into English.

Both of these, for example, would be a translation of "I go to college."

私は大学に行く。(Watashi-wa daigaku-ni iku.) – As for me, I go to college.  
大学は私が行く。(Daigaku-wa watashi-ga iku.) - About college, I go to it.

These sentences are perfectly grammatical in Japanese, but weird sounding in English. To make the dialogue sound more like a translation from Japanese, I applied Topic-Comment structures where I could without sounding awkward. See if you can spot any!

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	7. Act 1 Scene 6 - 妄想 'Delusion'

Act 1 Scene 6 - 妄想 [Mousou] 'Delusion'

* * *

He'd pushed the teen too hard. Now Conan's own flight or fight response kicked in. His heart hammered in his chest, and he gnashed and scratched at the hand clamped over him mouth. Not good, he couldn't get enough air. Not good! Calm down, think… He had to get out, had to explain before he was kidnapped, or worse, killed by someone who thought he could survive it. Trying to scratch and bite the hand wasn't doing anything. The guy didn't remove his hand, even when Conan tasted blood. Time to change tactics. Target the source of the hand, not the hand itself.

He dug his own hand into the dirt, and threw a wad of soil and leaves into Areku's face. The young man snarled and tried to paw it out of his eyes. His grip on Conan's face loosened enough for Conan to shout, "I'm not immortal!"

Sera must have been using the sounds of their voices to find her way to them, because she sprinted towards them through the forest like a charging boar. She grappled Areku off of Conan, the force of impact sending them both sprawling on the forest floor. Then she was on him again, wrestling him for control over his arms.

"You!" the boy's the hissed reply was interrupted with a short scream into the forest floor as Sera twisted his arms sharply into a hold behind his back and pushed him down.

Threat eliminated, she panted and looked up at Conan, cocky, toothy grin in place. "Jeeze, Conan, I can't leave you alone for five seconds!"

Conan paused, catching his breath before explaining it. "I said they tried to kill me with it, I didn't say that I stopped aging or couldn't be killed!" He scowled at his attacker, who's unfocused, tearing eyes left trails of mud on his cheeks.

"You'll have to tell me more about this," Sera said smirking at Conan as his gingerly pushed himself into a sitting position. He could taste Areku's blood on his teeth. He spat it out.

"Will you behave?" Sera asked Areku, giving his arm an extra twist.

He nodded dumbly. She released his arms, letting him carefully shake the pain out of his limbs. Then she let him sit upright, keeping one hand on the teen's right, ready to put him down again if he made a wrong move.

"Then you," Areku tried to wipe the dirt out of his eyes with his hand. It was the one Conan had bitten, leaving a smear of blood across his face. "You didn't even take it? Or you did, and it didn't have any effect?"

Conan gathered one of his flip-flops that had escaped in the short scuffle and put it on. It took a few tries, because adrenaline was making his hands shake. "I've grown two inches in the last year. I've almost died a few times, so I'm pretty sure I'm still mortal."

The 'teen' was still trembling. "I'm an idiot. It's a wonder they haven't found me already."

"Good question," muttered Sera. "Why haven't they found you already? And you Conan, you're like him?"

Conan sighed… sometimes one has to give information to get it, and this guy wasn't exactly the trusting type. Sera probably had the good sense to not blab, but she'd already heard so much already… "I'm nothing like him. It changed my appearance instead of killing me. I'm hiding right under their noses."

"You've been able to figure out the basic structure of the organization, and you even know the code name of their miracle drug, and the codename person who is in charge of developing it. All this by watching Detective Mouri?" Areku asked.

Conan and Sera snorted. "Conan's been solving all of Mr. Mouri's cases, then tricking him into figuring them out."

Areku was giving him the "What are you?" look of astonishment that Conan loved squeezing out of the people foolish enough to underestimate him. This time he could go in for the kill. If Areku flipped out again he had a practitioner of Jeet Kune Do to control him.

"If you decide to help me take them down, I won't be in contact with you directly. If I ever do need your help, I'll send some disguise experts I know to keep you completely hidden. How about it?"

"You have disguise experts on call?" Sera asked, gaping at Conan.

"Yeah, my mom."

She stifled a giggle.

The 'teen's shoulders slumped. "You're not giving me a choice, are you?"

"We already know enough to get ourselves killed several times over," Conan pointed out. "You might as well give us something to use against them."

He took a deep breath, and shakily let it out again. "If you can keep their hands off me, and keep me from the government, and swear that you also will only ever treat me like a normal human… I'm in. I'll tell you everything I know."

The detectives exchanged eager grins. Perfect. But where to start? How would this idiot know what would be useful? He wouldn't. He had an average intelligence at best; well-practiced at manipulating conversations but not at avoiding traps or thinking strategically. "Start at the beginning of your interactions with them, and tell us everything you can think of." Conan suggested. They could work from there and if anything stuck out, they could expand on it.

Areku lay the rest of the way down, the dried leaves crunching under the weight of his human form. Eyes closed, as though watching it happen before him again, he started to speak. Many of the Japanese words he didn't know, so he switched back and forth continually between Japanese and _English_.

"I'd been buried and asleep for over 50 years when someone got the bright idea to _redevelop_ an abandoned town in _Yorkshire_, and turn it into a gawdy _attraction of some sort_. When they dug me up, no one knew what to do with me. I didn't know anything about the _wars_ that had happened or how to use _modern technology_. I couldn't speak right; I didn't know how to act; I was pretty helpless. My strange _case_ made a stir in the newspapers, and a wealthy family, the _Morrison's_, took interest and decided to adopt me. They had me _tutored_ privately, and taught me how to live in the _modern era_.

"They figured out something wasn't quite right about my body after a few years. I should be in the midst of a _growth spurt_, but I never gained an _inch_. It started with a few visits to their private physician. They had dozens of tests run, but they couldn't find the problem. They started _keeping_ me _under guard_, and never showed my face publically. Then they brought in a _scientist_ who treated me strangely. He was from Japan, and I couldn't understand what he said most of the time. He'd have me _knocked out_, and when I'd wake up weeks or months later, I'd have new scars. One time I wasn't allowed to awaken for an entire year, and my right arm was missing. I knew by then that they'd figured me out and weren't going to be benign about it. I started begging my _adoptive_ family to make the _experiments_ stop, but instead, they stopped coming to see me. I don't know if they thought of me as human anymore, didn't care, or had handed me off to someone else.

"One day, I woke up and the staff had changed, and the _sadist_ was gone. My arm was back in its place, and I was whole again. I asked what happened, but no one told me anything. They treated me more kindly, and made me have some hope I could get out… but the _experiments_ didn't stop. The leaders of this _research_ were a Japanese-American husband and wife team, Mr. and Mrs. Miyano, and there were several different groups working under them. I also overheard them talking about their _findings_. They didn't try very hard to hide their _research_ from me, and even tried to justify it. They said that if they could figure out what made me the way I was, they could save _millions_ of lives. They spoke of a new _plague_ that attacked the _immune system_, and how I could be the key to stopping it. The medicine they made from me could be the silver bullet that pierced the heart of disease. Their words sounded so pure and righteous; I was swayed for a while.

"The thing that kept me from fighting back the most was this young woman they brought in. She'd had _leukemia_, and the treatment had destroyed her _bone marrow_. They had taken some of my _bone marrow_, and given it to her. Her name was _Samantha_, and she was a symbol of what could be accomplished by _researching_ me. She came to visit me all the time, to cheer me up, to help me through painful _procedures_. Eventually, I noticed that she wasn't aging normally. She'd been 19 when we first met, and seven years later, she looked like she was barely reaching 21. I asked her about it one day, when we were alone. She told me that she was the only successful _test subject_. There had been dozens more, and they all died, just from having my blood _circulate_ in their bodies. She was the only one that they had introduced me to. I begged her to help me get out, but she said she couldn't. Instead, she snuck about and told me more about what they were up to.

"I found out that during some of my longer stretches of _unconsciousness_, they'd been killing me over and over, trying to find what made me able to recover. They did it so often, they came up with some nicknames for my _death cycle_, like _Zombie Time_ and _Hibernation_. _Zombie Time_ is particularly violent, so run away as fast as you can if you ever see it. The _sadist_ probably triggered it by accident and got himself and his _assistants_ killed. When I was awake, they called me _Ambrosia_ to my face, and _The Humanoid_ to my back. Most of them didn't seem to like me much. They never talked to me. Mrs. Miyano gave me comic books to read.

"One day, under the influence of a lot of _painkillers_, I told the Miyano's I didn't want to be _experimented_ on any more. I vaguely remember tearing at Mrs. Miyano's shirt, begging her to let me go. They vanished shortly after that, and Samantha stopped visiting me. People I didn't know came. They dragged me to the basement, shoved me into a water tank and shot me in the face. I didn't wake up until the Miyano's daughter, the one you called 'Sherry', took up her parent's _research_, years later.

"The first time I saw her, I'd been drained of a lot of blood and was too weak to talk to her. She was still a girl. Under her _lab coat_, she was wearing a bright red dress, and she had sparkling clips holding back her light brown hair. She sat down beside me and talked at me for a few hours. It was really nice.

"She had the same naive idealism that her parents did. She really believed that she could make some kind of _panacea_ from me. She was so young. That's probably why she was so easily manipulated. Her fascination with the puzzle I was _dehumanized_ me, and let her keep up what she did. She said that the key wasn't my _zombieness_ or my _hibernation_, but my normal self. Her new effort was called 4869, a pun on 'Sherlock'. After a few months, she told me that she'd found a way to _synthesize_ the _compound_ without taking my blood. She told me I was saving the world. She told me that they were going to let me live as a normal boy now.

"She lied. Or they lied to her. It's hard to tell. They took me to the basement and put me back into the tank of water. The next time I woke up, _Samantha_ was carrying me on her back up a flight of metal stairs. The walls and stairs pitched and groaned, and I remember her strides rattling the steps. We were on a ship. She snuck me out onto the deck, and sat with me for a while, the way we used to. She told me about being an _actress_; about getting married, making a happy life for herself, and having to pretend she was her own daughter. She told me that they were never going to let me go. Then she said good-bye and threw me overboard. That was the last that I saw of them, until I met you."

Areku's voice had grown hoarse.

Conan contemplated the story for a while, and Sera studied Conan. Areku's amount of disassociation with the violence that had happened to him was disturbing. If he'd really lived as long as he said, and really suffered as much as he claimed, then this was to be expected. But, it could also be explained by him making it up on the spot. This had to be verified. He had to think about the people and events Areku was talking about, and if they made sense with what he knew.

One thing he did know: this guy had something to do with the organization. Areku hadn't seen the criminal side, but was aware of it, and afraid of it. They'd probably threatened him, told him they could find him no matter where he hid. They likely had also told him the same experiments would happen to him if he sought protection from the police. That might be true too. Isolation of their assets was their MO.

He knew the name Miyano, and his description matched their timeline, what little of it he'd learned from Haibara. Also, the woman he called 'Samantha', could that be…

"What was Samantha's codename?"

Areku frowned. "Vermouth. She never told me what they had her doing though. I don't know what being an _actress_ has to do with what they were doing with me."

Pieces started coming together, and fast. Vermouth hadn't told anyone about the de-aging effect of APTX 4867, and deliberately protected him and Ran at least twice, that he knew of. This meant she was actively going against the organization. She was probably doing counter-intelligence, and keeping the organization away from Areku as well. Then her hatred for Sherry ran much deeper than just Sherry, but all of the suffering that her family had caused.

"Did you hear the name 'Gin' at all?"

The teen squinted, like he was trying to peer into the past. "He's one of the ones who earned a codename. I never met him formally, while I was awake. I heard rumors that he'd come and talk to me when I was _Zombie_. He scared everyone."

"How did he do that? Aren't you supposed to run if you see Zombie?"

He unconsciously rubbed his wrist, like he was trying to massage away an old ache. "It's really strong and can't feel pain, but it can't break through heavy chains or concrete walls. If you chain me down well enough before making Zombie come out, you're safe as long as you don't let it go."

The image of someone strapping a zombie down and interrogating it popped into Conan's head, and he stifled a giggle. "Zombie is sentient enough to talk to?"

Areku shrugged. "I've never talked to it myself… but people have told me that. A few _cults_ have grown up around _crazy people_ talking to it. There are some people that it talks to and doesn't kill. They usually stick around and help me out after meeting it. They tell me that they are reincarnations of my older brother and the Shaman who made me the way I am, but I don't know if that's true, or if it just chooses people it thinks would want to help me. I think it thinks I need companions."

A shaman… but that weird mysticism stuff rarely ever had any connection to reality, beyond people's disturbed fantasies.

"What do you think Zombie is?" Sera asked.

"Current theory - Aliens. I've never met anyone like me, so I think an alien, maybe the last of its kind, or an alien machine or life support system that got flung out into space, came to earth, and that somehow infected me when I was 16."

Laughter broke loose despite the detectives' best efforts. "You've read way too many comic books!" Sera said through a quite unladylike series of snorts.

"Shut up," Areku huffed. "I didn't have much else to do when I was conscious, other than be in pain. And yes, I know that's basically Venom's backstory. I just don't have any clue how this happened to me. Almost anything seems plausible at this point, and it's been so long than my memory of it is hazy at best."

"What do you remember?" Conan asked. Whoops, getting sidetracked. Better reign in the conversation soon.

"I was really sick, dying. I went to sleep. When I woke up, I was in the cave we used as a barrow, wearing a corpse's clothes. I went down to the village to let them know I was alright, but everyone was gone, and the village was in ruins. It looked like many years had passed. I started wandering, and slowly discovered the changes that had happened to me. So, nothing I know is really helpful. If it was, they'd have figured it out long ago."

"I suppose so." Conan frowned. What would be helpful to ask? Where to start? "How many names can you remember?"

Areku was quiet for a while. "A few. Some of the _scientists_ never talked to me, so I don't remember them, or only parts of their names, and I don't know how to write any of the Japanese people's names, but I could sound them out for you. Do you mind if the list is in English?"

"I know my ABC's; I can read and write in Romanji very well. I visit my parents in the US all the time, after all."

"And I'm from the US. I lived there until I moved to Japan a few months ago," Sera quickly added.

"Right, right. I forgot." Areku stood up. He winced as he dusted himself off, noticing the deep bite-mark on his palm. "Oh, there's something that I can do now!" he said, grinning like a madman. "I couldn't do it before because it scares normal people who don't know about me." He helped a confused Conan up, and clasped Sera's hand. "Would you like to see me _hibernate_?"

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

This chapter, I had a challenge. How to make Areku's story feel like he was codeswitching throughout it? Furthermore, Conan and Sera could understand every single word, they'd just have a small amount of jarring switching back and forth with him. How to accomplish that?

There were several methods that I tried out. First, I tried writing the English, with no modifications. No good, that was too easy to read. Then I tried making the words he'd have trouble with bold, but that was too distracting. Third, I tried writing the English words phonetically, but I didn't get far before remembering that while I can read IPA fluently, most people have never encountered IPA before. And lastly, I split the difference and just made them italic. Hopefully that makes them just hard enough to understand to get across the idea that it's a little difficult to follow what he's saying, without making it too hard to read. Let me know if I failed, or need to change my approach, will you?

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	8. Act 1 Scene 7 – 人間型 'The Humanoid'

Act 1 Scene 7 – 人間型 [Ningengata] 'The Humanoid'

* * *

"S-sure," Sera said, hesitantly. "What does hibernation involve?"

"We'll need to take a short detour to a freshwater pond I know about. You know what the word 'hibernate' means, right?" He started trying to dragging Sera and Conan off the trail and into a darker part of the forest. The ocean was getting farther and farther away.

"It means to sleep through winter," Conan said.

"Right. Except when I do it, my body heals itself really fast. But in order to do it, I need to put myself to rest. It looks like I'm dead to most people. When I'm doing it to heal injuries quickly, I need a partner to wake me, or I'll stay asleep forever."

"So, how will we wake you?" Sera asked, holding his wrist. This was sounding dangerous.

"What about Zombie Time?" Conan added.

Areku laughed. "Zombie Time is really rare, and you'd have to kill me violently in order to make it happen. Though poison makes it happen too, sometimes. It depends on the type of poison. Some just put me into hibernation for a short while. As for waking me – just make sure I can breathe. You'll see what I mean."

They reached a shallow, shaded pond. There was no visible source of the water, but a small stream out of the pond proved that the source was probably a spring. The bank was covered in thick, dense moss. The water was so clear, they could see right down to the bottom, which had very little vegetation, and mostly rocks as its bed.

Then Areku started stripping.

"What are you doing?" Sera asked, trying not to stare at the bizarre behavior. She let go of him to cover her eyes.

"You know that Sera's a girl, right?" Conan said, arms crossed.

"Sorry if seeing me scars you for life. I don't have a change of clothes, so I'll have to go in naked."

"Why are you going in?"

Finished, he gingerly stepped in the water, shivering. "To trigger hibernation. Agh, this water is really really cold…" He got waist deep, took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Give me about 10 minutes, then pull me out. Make sure you put me on my side, so the water drains out quickly."

"Wait, what are you-" Sera said, unshielding her eyes.

Areku submerged himself completely. They ran to the edge of the water. He was holding onto a large rock in the bed of the pond. A batch of airbubbles rose to the surface, then stopped. Suddenly Areku convulsed and let go of the rock. He was drowning himself?

"Has he gone completely nuts?" Sera yelled, jumping fully clothed into the pond.

Conan climbed down the bank and tried to follow, but the rocks were really difficult to walk on, and the water was so cold it hurt. He slipped and fell into the water, the sudden icy embrace knocking the wind out of him. Why'd his body have to be so little and useless?

Taking a deep breath, Sera dived under. Wrapping one arm around Areku, she dragged his lifeless body to the surface. Conan climbed out and ran around the bank to the spot it looked like Sera was aiming for.

Teeth chattering, they pulled his cold, limp body onto a mass of soft vines that grew into the water. Conan cleared Areku's airway, the way he'd learned during diver-safety classes he'd attended with his father in Hawaii. Areku had better be right about this immortality thing, or else they'd just watched a crazy person commit suicide.

"Wait!" Sera said, eyes wide. She held up Areku's injured hand. The skin was knitting itself back together, leaving only faint scars. The bruises Sera had given him earlier had completely vanished.

As soon as the injury was gone, Sera rolled him onto his side and checked that his mouth was open. Water poured out, a lot faster than if it was simply draining out. About half a minute of this weird spectacle had passed when Areku finally thrashed and coughed. After expelling the last drops from his lungs, he said weakly, "That was _hibernation_." He looked at his healed hand and grinned. "Why are you all wet?"

"You freakin' idiot!" Sera yelled. "We thought you were killing yourself!" The white blouse Sonoko had chosen for Sera to wear was now transparent, showing her plain sports bra underneath. She unbuttoned it and wrung it out.

"You didn't believe my story?" Areku laughed.

"Well, you had just lied to us," Conan reasoned. "And there was no way to tell if you were delusional or not."

Areku grabbed his pants, and pulled them on. Thoughts about modesty had long been deemed irrelevant. "It's always a little nerve-wracking for people at first. You could have left me in longer, by the way. Then some of these old scars would have faded a bit more. If you left me for a whole day, I'd probably have no scars left on me anywhere, and I'd been completely healthy." His damp skin caught his threadbare shirt as his pulled it over his head, making it twist into a tight roll under his armpits, which he busied himself with untangling.

"Is that why they'd put you in a tank of water?" Conan asked, wringing out his shorts.

"Right. It's the safest way to transport me when I don't want to be transported. Just force me into _hibernation_, and I'll stay healthy and passive as long as they need me that way." He pulled tight the nylon cord he used for a belt, and tied it off. "Don't tell anyone that though. It's like getting knocked out and having no control over what strangers do to you. Never, ever put me into _hibernation_ without my permission, okay? And if I want to be in _hibernation_, make sure you follow my instructions to the letter, like you just did."

They nodded nodded fervently. Conan definitely was going to need Haibara to explain a lot of things when he got back. For a start – did this mean immortality was actually possible? If the teen was telling the truth, and he'd re-grown limbs and survived being shot in the head, just like he'd spontaneously reanimated after drowning… that would make any person with half a brain want to pin him down and study him. No wonder so many people had been driven into doing so many horrible things to try to figure this out.

Sera's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Shinichi Kudou."

He looked up.

"Well, that explains that. I knew I was right about you two, but I just couldn't figure out how." She went to work on the once light, floaty skirt that a blushing Sonoko had insisted upon. "By the way, why haven't you told Ran?"

He winced. "If I told Ran, she'd want to charge in and beat them all up, and she'd get herself killed."

"I don't know about that," Sera said, shrugging. "She's smarter than you give her credit for. Someday you'll have to tell me how the death of my brother fits into all of this, and I don't want you to hold anything back. I imagine it's the same for her." She wasn't his meeting his eyes, which was odd for Sera. To Conan, she'd always spoken straightforwardly, unsubtly, barreling through in a very American fashion. His intuition told him that she was holding something back, lying by omission. Had Ran already figured it out?

"Don't tell her, please?" Conan plead. "A lot more lives than hers or mine are on the line here."

"I get it; I won't. It's not my place to either." Sera shook out her skirt, flinging water everywhere.

"Hey! A little warning next time!" Areku snapped.

"Same to you," grumbled Sera.

Like wet cats, they spread out on the bank, taking advantage of the break in the dense foliage that let drying and warming light through.

"It wasn't all lies." Areku pushed aside a pebble that was in his back. "I really did learn Kanji in China. It was a long time ago, and I can't speak with modern Chinese speakers at all. I don't even know if I learned an ancestor of Mandarin." He closed his eyes, and flopped in his cleared spot. "And I really was born somewhere along the border between Tibet and Pakistan. Or, I think I was. I told my story to an _archeologist_, and he told me that was probably where I was from."

Turning onto her side, Sera asked, "What about your own language? Can you still speak that?"

He took a breath, and started to sing, a strange, quiet chant. It was slow and repetitive; every other phrase was the first one repeated. The cadence of the strange language made them sleepy, like a lullaby or mantra. "iʃɛmmaa rɛʔtʃəəm ɸymmyy" he repeated one last time. They settled into a comfortable silence.

Under his breath, barely audible he repeated it in Japanese:

"Out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
It pulled the root, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
Old bones rose up, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
Covered in mud, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
Rivers carved it, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
The Ice came, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
Great Crow laid down, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
The Growing came, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
It fell to pieces, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
The pieces became humans, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
Above the great river bank, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky.  
That is our home, out of water, Great Crow, in the sky."

"It sounds like a creation myth," Sera whispered, as though it was sacrilegious to speak normally.

"A small piece of one. That's just the part explaining why we were living in a valley shaped like a ribcage, and why we called ourselves the Crow's People."

Still not with a full voice, she attempted to reinterpret the poem. "Your people are the pieces of a gigantic crow that froze to death in winter, after pulling a big, muddy skeleton tangled in a root from the water, which is where you live."

He chortled. "Every culture has an embarrassingly silly origin story. Japan is a clump of pond scum that fell off a spear that a god was mucking about with, after all."

"Do you still believe it?" Conan asked. Too late, he realized that this might seem a rather rude, pushy question coming from him, a strident Skeptic and Non-religious Atheist. Ran was used to him brushing off all of that baseless superstition, but he'd had a few run-ins with people who hadn't appreciated his evidence-based view of the world.

To his relief, Areku didn't seem to notice the subtext to Conan's question, or at least, chose to ignore it. "I don't believe it anymore. I've seen too many to believe any of them, so I've given up trying to guess about such a distant past. I just repeat my people's song because it's nostalgic. I can't do it as well as I remember our…" he paused, struggling to find an equivalent title. "Doctor? Teacher? Witch? Matriarch?" he shook his head. "We called her our ɛstɛ. She taught the song to us, and I hear her voice in my head whenever I repeat it. Hers is the only voice from my first life that I can recall."

At a normal speaking volume, making them jump, he said, "Oh, and my name was Barai. It's a word for the soft undercoat in an animal's fur. If I had lived long enough, I would have been a weaver, so I chose that name when I came of age."

The name had many sounds in common with Haibara's name. Thinking of her, Conan realized there was another way to corroborate Areku's testimony, at least the modern parts. "I know another person who escaped. I'll ask them if they'd like to meet you. Would you want that?"

"Someone else escaped?" he asked, sitting up. "Yes, I'd love to… Only if you're absolutely certain that they'd never turn me back in."

"You don't have to worry about that," Conan laughed. "They hate the organization about as much as you do, maybe more." He pulled out his phone. Luckily it hadn't been damaged in the water. "I'll give them a call."

It took her a while to answer, and it almost timed out.

"What do you want Kudou? I was in the middle of a bath." Her tone gave him a prickly sensation in his fingers and up his back.

"I have made a break-through in the case that I thought you'd want to hear about. I met Ambrosia."

He heard the cell drop from her hands and clatter on the floor. Then a very loud, "WHAT?!"

"He'd like to meet you. I didn't tell him anything about you, except that you escaped."

"Professor!" she yelled. "We're going to go to Kumajima, and we're leaving as soon as possible!" She took a deep breath, and sent a volley of questions. "How is his health? What's his mood like? What did he tell you? What does he know about me? He could be the way to find a cure for you, don't you dare let him go!" She paused to catch her breath.

"I won't let him go, don't worry. He really wants to meet you too. Can I tell him who you were?"

"Yes! No!" she paused. "Do you know if he hates me?"

"He described you as a believer, blind to the dark side of what you were doing. I don't think he hates you, but he hates what was done to him."

"I'm going to have to apologize a lot. I never hoped that I could get a chance to do that. Go ahead and tell him who I am. I'm coming over by tomorrow at the latest. Profess-!" She hung up.

Conan sat a while, staring into the fractured light slipping through the leaves. Would Haibara finally tell him everything after this? Probably not, because she was still paranoid. But she might give him details he could use finally. This was one reunion he'd have to catch every second of.

"So? Who is it?" Areku asked, pawing at Conan's bare shoulder.

"You knew her as Sherry, but she's changed her name and her appearance since then."

He gaped. "Sherry got out?" He pumped his fist in the air, hooting. When he finally could sit still, he asked, "What's she like now?"

Conan thought back to when they'd first met. "At first, she was really paranoid that they'd find her again, kinda like you. She tried to commit suicide once, but I stopped her. After that she got a lot better, like she'd decided that she could be frightened all the time, or she could enjoy her new life. I doubt she'll ever go back to being Shiho Miyano, even after I take them down."

"Is she like you?" Sera piped up.

"Yeah. She's the one who made the poison, even."

Areku looked confused. "She survived too? Does that mean her appearance was altered like yours was?"

"Right. She's also able to hide in plain sight."

Sera smirked, having figured out who it was.

"So," Conan said, a though suddenly coming to him. "I can use your 'room' to read in, right? My dad sent me his latest novel to critique."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Areku said, gears in his head grinding as the topic switched.

Conan's phone went off again, disrupting the subdued mood they'd found themselves in. "Hello, Kudou?"

"What is it?" he asked, rubbing the drowsiness from his eyes.

"Bad news, Kudou. I can't make it there for a few days, at least not without draining Agasa's bank account. I'm still coming!"

"Okay. See you then." He hung up and looked over at Areku. "Sherry can't come for a few more days, but she's definitely not giving up."

The teen sighed. "I'll live. Literally." He giggled at his own joke.

Conan rolled his eyes. How'd this idiot lasted so long on his own?

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Did you notice the weird alphabet I used for transcribing the refrain? That Alphabet is IPA – the International Phonetic Alphabet. If you know it, you can sound out the refrain very accurately.

It is awesome. I love, love, LOVE IPA. I sometimes compose poetry using it, because it makes it so much easier to analyze the rhyme-meter of a poem if you can visually see how it sounds. Sometimes I write whole stories in it. I take notes in it, especially if I'm dealing with a foreign language that I don't know the spelling conventions of. I've always hated English orthography because I suck at spelling. I remember being in Kindergarten, and the teacher pointing to the letter A.

"What sound does the A make?" she asked us, smiling pleasantly.

Four hands raised up, and each had a separate correct answer. That's ridiculous. One sound per a letter is much easier to deal with.

The genius of IPA isn't just that it's one letter = one sound, it's that it's not listed according to an arbitrary order (ABC… and so on). It's listed in a chart, according to where and how the sound is made. This way you can very easily and quickly spot patterns in how sounds effect each other. For linguists – it's incredibly useful. It's also used for reporters, singers, and actors, people who have to reproduce names/words that they've never pronounced before accurately. I think that it should replace the system used in American dictionaries and taught in schools, perhaps replace our spelling system entirely. We already have a standardized dialect (reporter-speak), so why not?

Anyways, here is a transcription of the IPA /iʃɛmmaa rɛʔtʃəəm ɸymmyy/, into… Japanese romanji-ish? I'll give some additional notes to explain some of the sounds.

"ishemmaa retchaam fummuu"

The R is rolled. The /ə/ is pronounced like the U in "but". The /ɸ/ is pronounced like the Japanese F, not the English F. The /y/ is pronounced like a French U, like in "pull" or "lune" or a German Ü.

Would you like to see my dialect of English in IPA? It looks like this:

/ˈwʊdʒu ˈlaɪk tʰəˈsij ˈmaj ˈdajəlɛkt əv ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ ɪn ˈajˈpʰiˈéj/ /ɪt ˈlʊks laɪk ˈðɪs/

/mata ɾainɛɛ̃/ (See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	9. Act 1 Scene 8 二人の花 'The Two Flowers'

Act 1 Scene 8 二人の花 [Futari-no Hana] 'The Two Flowers'

* * *

The days passed quietly and peacefully. Shinichi made good use of Areku's 'bedroom' and was able to call his dad and give him a review, or critique rather, of his latest novel. The characterization was getting strained and unrealistic because he'd neglected several characters that he'd made important from the start. The Night Baron series hadn't been intended for serialization, his father reminded him, so such weaknesses were to be expected. It was the editors and book companies' faults for making him stretch out a simple story indefinitely. Then Shinichi gave him a cathartic rant about integrity as an artist.

Afterwards, as he walked along the beach back to the resort, he spotted Kogorou. He waved and called, "Go round up the girls; it's dinner time!"

Conan let his toes dig into the sand one last time before shaking off the grit and going inside. He could heard voices coming out of the bedroom as he approached the door. They were Ran and Sonoko's, and both were speaking softly, and slightly muffled. He heard Ran say his name, and stopped before entering, to listen in.

"—confessed, and I know I should answer him, but… I don't know anymore. We've been apart for too long."

Something in his chest panged, and he dropped to his knees. It sounded like… it couldn't mean… was she going to break up with him? Was she falling out of love with him? Paralyzed and ashamed, he listened for more.

Sonoko wasn't helping, she was agreeing. "I know, right? I've been in this relationship with Makoto for months now, and I've seen him only a handful of times. Long distance relationships suck. Half the time I wonder if our relationship is just some fantasy playing out in my head."

"Yeah, and when I do see him," Ran added, "he leaves suddenly, without saying goodbye, with nothing resolved. In London, if he'd just stayed around for a little longer, I probably would have said yes." She released a long sigh. "But when he vanished again, I was reminded, he's the one who isn't there. How can I have a relationship with someone I can't even touch?"

"Ugh, that! That so much that!" Sonoko said loudly. "Makoto doesn't really let me touch him when he's here, and he's always telling me what to wear or how to act… sometimes I think he's not in a relationship with me at all, but some caricature he dreamed up. If we could spend more time together, and he got to know me better, maybe we could start having a real relationship. We haven't even kissed yet, and we've been together for months!"

"Together being only in the loosest meaning of the term. At least he's honest with you. Shinichi is close by, always, but he doesn't show his face to me, and he lies constantly."

"Oh Ran!" Sonoko cried. There was sounds of movement on the bed, muffled sobs. Shinichi's heart sank further. He was making her cry. He leaned against the wall, his own tears dripping down his face. Why did this have to be so hard?

Finally Ran spoke again, her voice slightly choked. "I know I told him I'd wait, but it's been almost two years now."

"It's unreasonable." Sonoko's voice sounded a little husky, like she'd been holding back her own tears. "He hasn't thought about your feelings at all in this."

'Yes I have!' Shinichi wanted to scream. 'That's why I lie, why I beg you to wait for me!'

"It's as though he can't trust me," Ran said. "During Valentine's Day last year, he took this picture…" Sounds of her cellphone's beeps echoed about the room. "See? He was there, but he didn't let me see him."

"Do you know if," Sonoko began hesitantly, "He gets most of his information about you from Conan, right? It's like he's having Conan spy on you. Conan worships him so much that I bet he does it without realizing what it means…"

_Is that what it seems like on the outside?_

"For a long time, I've suspected, even though it seems completely implausible… and don't laugh at me when I say this! I sometimes think Conan and Shinichi are the same person."

A muffled laugh. "You're right, that is completely implausible, but it'd make sense, wouldn't it? You said it yourself: he's always close, but never shows himself."

"They have the same blood type too, same as me. I was able to give him a blood transfusion when he was shot… but that could just be a coincidence. It's statistically possible, as Shinichi would say, but improbable, because it's so rare."

"Maybe Conan is Shinichi's dad's secret love child."

It was Ran's turn to laugh. "I really couldn't picture Shinichi's dad cheating on his mom."

"Hey, it's possible they have an open marriage. They are awful weird, and they're also gone most of the time, so who knows what they get up to?"

"Then they'd have to lie about being polyamorous, lie about Conan being related to them; it'd be no wonder if Shinichi feels like lying is the way to go about things." Ran sounded a bitter at the last statement.

"Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Also him name: Conan Edogawa. It's like a mystery nerd's username. Mr. Kudou probably named him," Sonoko giggled.

"Yeah… their family situation is weird." More squeaks of bedsprings and shifting of sheets could be heard. "His parents came by one time to pick him up, and he didn't even recognize them. He needs his real mother, and I don't think I can…"

"It's a lot of responsibility. I don't think I could do what you do. You're amazing, you know that?"

Something had changed in Sonoko's voice. It wasn't her tone when fangirling over something, this was more intimate. Do girls really talk like this to eachother when they're alone?

Sonoko continued, "You've made incredible accomplishments in karate, your grades are good, you take care of your dad, and a little orphan who's too smart for his own good and gets into trouble all the time. I don't think most people could do what you do. I wish Shinichi could see what I see in you."

"I wish that Makoto would see what I see in you too. You're always kind, always making everyone around you happier, and when you're excited about something, I can't help but get excited with you. Just being near you makes me happy. You're the best friend I could ever hope for."

A soft sound followed, like a large raindrop hitting the ground. Shinichi suddenly felt nauseous, and confused. That sound, why… why there… between them… He couldn't listen any more. He got up, and grabbed the door handle.

"Sometimes," Sonoko said softly.

He stopped. He felt dread hang over him, and he couldn't move. What if he saw them?

"Sometimes I think we're in more of a relationship than we are with our boyfriends."

"Yeah."

_Stop agreeing with her Ran!_

"I should call Shinichi, make things clear. I owe him that much."

"Ran," Sonoko said suddenly, a slight nervous edge to her voice. "Do you think that we're really… like… that?"

Shinichi… Conan couldn't take it anymore. He burst into the room and ran over to the bed. Ran and Sonoko jumped apart, but it was too late, he'd seen them lying side by side, their faces close, hands entwined. Their cheeks were red.

He needed to say something, anything… "It's time for dinner! They told me to go find you."

"Roger," Sonoko said, stretching her arms up in the air.

Ran leaned over and patted Conan's head, then stopped, her brow furrowed. She grabbed his chin and leaned in close. "Conan, were you crying?" She froze, something coming together in her head. "Oh no… you heard us, didn't you?"

Conan couldn't answer. His mind was blank and his tongue useless.

"Yikes," Sonoko said, covering her mouth, blushing even more.

Ran's eyes narrowed, and her jaw stiffened. "You shouldn't eavesdrop on people Conan, it's rude. What did you hear?"

"Oh my gosh," Sonoko muttered into her hand. "We're going to have to explain the birds and the bees to an eight year old."

He had to say something, but the last words he overheard, that was what he wanted to know. "What… does 'like that' mean?" Conan instantly regretted it. Their faces lost their façades. They were hurt and angry, and a little scared.

Sonoko spoke first. "We don't really know ourselves, yet." She glanced sideways at Ran. "I don't know how Ran feels, that's why I was asking her. I'm kinda confused myself."

Ran nodded. "You might be right, Sonoko."

More tears slipped out. He couldn't stop. He never wanted it to end this way. Maybe it'd have been better if he'd just died in that theme park.

"Don't tell anyone, especially Shinichi," Ran let go of Conan's chin, and started wiping the tears off of his cheeks. "It's something private that I need to tell him. It'd hurt him too much to hear it come from you."

"Does this," dammit, he couldn't stop crying! "mean that you don't like Shinichi anymore?"

Ran plucked him off the floor, and gave him a big, motherly hug. "I still like him, but I don't know if we can be a couple. It's too hard to be close with someone who you aren't close to. Especially if they lie to you."

"He has a really good reason!" Conan sobbed into her shirt.

"And he could tell a little kid, but not me."

This hurt too much. He wriggled free of Ran's grasp, and fled outside, not bothering to grab his sandals. A hedge was in the way, so he turned and found himself in the garden. He cursed and kicked the head off of one of the flowers, and it stung him back, as though to say, "Don't take it out on me!" He stomped over to a stone bench to take a look at his foot. As he climbed up, he felt his chest tightening. He couldn't catch his breath. His head spun, and his sense of balance seemed to think he was on a boat in rough seas. Nausea washed over him, as though he'd been thrown overboard. He closed his eyes, trying to steady himself, but his limbs stopped obeying his commands. He felt himself hit the ground. What was in that flower? He didn't care. He was tired, and wanted to sleep.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

In Japanese poetry (Haiku, renka, and so on) you don't count syllables. You count morae. (This term isn't Japanese; it's a linguistic term, BTW.)

A "mora" (plural "morae" because Latin!) is a unit of comparative time in speech, measuring how long it takes to say something. In Japanese, this is expressed in their writing systems – Hiragana and Katakana. So, to figure out how many morae are in a word or phrase, just count the letters in the word.

This can be a bit confusing, because a syllable and a mora are different things in Japanese, while in English, mora aren't really counted at all.

So, let's look at a few names and count their syllables and morae, to get used to this.

Kudou Shin'ichi – 5 syllables (ku-doo shin-i-chi) and 7 morae (ku-do-o shi-n-i-chi)  
You'll note that the long O in "doo" counts as 2 morae, and the N coming at the end of the syllable in "shin" gets its own mora.

Hattori Heiji – 5 syllables (hat-to-ri hee-ji) and 7 morae (ha-t-to-ri he-e-ji)  
Please note that the T at the end of the syllable in "Hat" gives that syllable an extra mora.

Toukyou – 2 syllables (too-kyoo) and 4 morae (to-o-kyo-o)  
Interestingly, the Cy- (CONSONANT+y) beginning syllables aren't given an extra mora; being in the beginning of the syllable rather than the end of it.

This has some other effects which aren't as obvious to non-Japanese speakers. In songs, the singers will sing according to the moraic structure of the words, not the syllabic structure. This has the fascinating effect of singers having to sing lone T's and N's.

It also effects the way one slow-emphasizes a name. You know when you're yelling at someone, and you break down their name into syllables, to make the person know they're really in trouble? In Japanese, you break the name into morae instead. Listen closely next time you watch the anime when Ran yells "Shi-n-i-chi!" or Kazuha yells "He-e-ji!" It's more noticeable then.

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


	10. Act 1 Scene 9 - 蜂と欄'A Bee and an Orchid'

Act 1 Scene 9 - 蜂と欄と [Hachi-to Ran-to] 'A Bee and an Orchid'

* * *

Conan was still awake. His vision had blacked out, or browned out? All he could see was a mottled brown color. His ears were ringing too, but he could still hear what was happening around him. Even as his limbs lost sensation, he wearily refused to fall unconscious. Suddenly shouting cut through the noise in his ears, and he was picked up. He was being carried like a baby. One arm cradling his upper back and supporting his head, to keep it from lolling and straining his neck. The other held him up, encircling the back of his knees and the hand clutching his lower back. The soft mound his head was resting on meant female. It felt familiar. Ran?

She started to jog with him in her arms, snapping commands at someone he couldn't quite hear. He instantly felt ashamed. He tried to squirm, but his limbs weren't listening to him. They were limp, useless lumps of flesh. "Let go," he tried to say, but his tongue felt thick and stiff as a plank of wood. His vocal chords seemed to be made of wire, and pushing any air through them was extremely difficult. He tried opening his eyes. At least they obeyed him, but the brown haze was all he could see. He closed his eyes again.

"How much farther?" Ran's voice came from above.

"See the fence? That's where we're going." Areku's voice? The fence… they were taking him to the doctor's through the woods, and not bothering to go through the front. What happened to him?

Ran broke out into a sprint. He could hear Areku struggling to keep up, a few paces behind.

"Where's the gate?"

"We're going through the fence. You won't fit carrying him; I'll go first." His voice was breathy, and his breathing audible. The inhaler from before, Asthma? An immortal with Asthma. He would have laughed if he could. The loose board rattled. Ran crouched, and supported Conan's body with her thighs. "Alright, head first."

"Got him?" A lot of hands were on him, gently passing him through the fence. His own hands dragged on the ground.

Then he was back in Ran's arms. She was clutching too tight; it was getting harder to breathe.

Areku was shouting the doctor's name, knocking on the windows.

Ran was rocking Conan, whispering, "Hang in there. Your big sister will miss you if you're gone. The doctor will fix you up, and you can go back to sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."

"Areku, I'm in the middle of dinner, and I have guests!" Dr. Nishiyama's voice was high pitched and loud.

Ran moved again. "Pardon the intrusion, it's an emergency!" Ran yelled. Her voice was shaking. "Conan's all swollen, and we can't wake him!"

Swollen? What was going on?

The doctor's tone of voice changed immediately. "Examination room. Now."

They were running again, doors rattled and then, he was on an examination table. The sink was running, and the doctor was questioning them.

"How long has he been like this?"

"He was missing for 10 minutes, maybe 15."

"Where did you find him?"

"We found him in the garden. We went searching because…"

"Not important. Was he unconscious when you found him?"

"Yes."

"What position was he in?"

"Curled up like a baby, on his side. His hands and feet were weird."

"Weird like how?" The sound of a paper towel dispenser rattling.

"All scrunched up, like this…" Plastic gloves applied with a sharp rubbery snap.

The doctor's hand were cool through the plastic. They gently held his wrist a short while, then prodded his left ankle, opened his mouth as wide as it would go. She opened his eye, pointed her flashlight into it, making him see spots.

"Is he allergic to bee stings?"

"I don't know, he's never said." Come to think about it, he'd never been stung by a bee before. A few nasty hornet stings, yes, a few spider bites, some ants, but never a bee.

"This is anaphylaxis, likely." The hands left him, and her voice was echoed against a wall. "I need to inject him with something. It's going to make his body shake. Young lady, you hold his hand; he might be scared."

Ran grabbed his hand. Too tight. _Ouch_.

He didn't notice the injection. But after it, that he felt. His heart raced, and his body trembled uncontrollably. He tried to call Ran's name, but his voice still wasn't working. They must have seen his mouth move though, because some unknown voice cheered. Were there more people in the room? He tried opening his eyes. The brown haze was gone. Ran was to his side, holding his hand tightly. There was sweat running down her brow. Areku was sitting in a chair in the corner, his face in his hands. The doctor's dinner guests had come downstairs, and were poking their heads through the door. The doctor was setting up an IV, working very fast.

"Can you speak?" the doctor asked gently.

Conan shook his head. It was more difficult that it should have been. His muscles didn't want to cooperate.

"That must have been very scary, not being able to move like that."

Conan nodded.

"Wait, he was awake?" Ran interjected.

Conan nodded again.

"Yes, he just was too weak to move, and his throat is too swollen for him to speak. The hands and feet curling, that's a symptom that he wasn't getting enough oxygen. It happens as the body shuts down blood supply to unneeded limbs too keep one alive longer. Good job bringing him in as fast as you could, any longer and he could have died."

Ran and Areku's faces were grim and frightened.

She turned back to Conan. "Did a bee sting you?"

Yes, that was a reasonable deduction. He nodded.

She wiped his arm down with rubbing alcohol. The fumes stung his eyes. "I need to poke you again, are you ready?"

Nod.

She inserted the IV, and taped it so it wouldn't wiggle. "Is it comfortable there?"

Nod.

"Are you still having trouble breathing?"

Conan attempted to take a deep breath, but it didn't come easily, and made a frightening hissing noise.

The doctor inspected his lips and tongue. "Would you like some oxygen? We have a tank full of it, just for times like this."

Nod.

"Stay here and rest while I go get it, okay? Young lady, please contact his parents and have them come here." She looked at Ran.

Ran shook her head. "We don't know where they are, but my dad and I are looking after him, so I can call my dad."

"Very well, do that then." The doctor hurried off, shooing her guests out and closing the door behind her.

With her spare hand, she pulled out her cell phone, fumbled with the keys. Ran took a deep breath, and punched the 'dial' button. As she waited for her father to pick up, she looked at Areku and said, "Thank you for helping rescue this accident prone little brat."

"You're welcome. I'm glad I could help." He pulled his inhaler out of his pocket and sucked in a dose.

Finally Kogorou answered. Conan couldn't hear what he said, but listened to Ran.

"Hi Dad… yes, Areku and I found him. He'd fallen behind a bench in the garden. … We're at the clinic Conan went to the first morning. … He's alright, didn't get shot or stabbed this time. Doctor says it was a bee sting. He's all swollen. … Doctor thinks he might be allergic. … I'll ask her. She wants you to come here. … I don't know. … No, he can't talk yet. … Yeah, he can listen. … Okay, I will." She punched another key, and Kogorou's voice echoed about the room.

"Do you have a death wish, you shitty brat?"

Sonoko's voice called from the background, "You tell 'im Mr. Mouri!"

"From now on, you aren't going anywhere without an adult present, got that?"

Conan nodded, and Ran punched the key again. "He gets it. … Right. … Seen you in a few minutes, Dad. Bye."

The trembling in his limbs kept going. It was embarrassing to watch his feet vibrate on the table. One of them was swollen up, like someone had pumped it full of air. Maybe he could try to speak again. Maybe he should just never speak again. He closed his eyes. He was too tired to think about all of this.

"Hey, no going to sleep," Ran said. He could feel her breath on his ear. "You'll scare us again."

"Sor…" he'd responded without thinking. At least he knew now that his voice could still function. Not very well, but at least something could come out.

Ran gasped and hugged him. "I couldn't hear you; try again!"

"Sorry. I'm sorry." He really was. And now he was crying again. "I have something… to tell you."

The doctor came back in, and he clamped his mouth shut.

She set down the tank, and connected a breathing mask to it, and opened the valve. "Just breathe normally," she said as she strapped the mask on.

"Thank you very much," Ran said, bowing politely. "My name is Ran Mouri, by the way."

"Nice to meet you Miss Mouri." She returned the bow, stripping off her gloves. "Areku, you can stay the night here. You look tired. Did you take your medication?"

"I did," he mumbled. "They invited me to stay with them the last time I brought Conan here, so I've been sleeping in the resort. If this turns into an overnight stay, I'll help out here."

"You can stay in my spare room."

He nodded, eyes down.

She smiled broadly. "Good, that's settled. Now," she turned to Conan. "Is your breathing getting better?"

"Yes ma'am," he answered quietly. Breathing and talking had gotten a lot easier. His leg was starting to itch, and he lifted his trembling hand to scratch. He could move his arms.

"Ran dear, don't let him scratch," the doctor said.

Ran pressed Conan's hands down on his stomach. It was a pleasant, warm weight.

He had to tell Ran the truth. He had to, or else he'd lose her. Or maybe he'd already lost her. It was too murky, but Sonoko had been right. He wasn't being fair to her. Ran had been right. He should be able to trust her, if not with all of the truth, his identity at least. Then let happen what will.

But Bourbon was so close. If her behavior changed, if she let something slip, it'd be out of his hands, he wouldn't have control.

But she'd had a pretty good idea who he was for a long time. She wasn't dumb; that was one of the reasons he liked her. Smart, strong, caring, honest… telling her meant he'd have to ask her to lie.

"What do you have to tell me?" Ran asked.

But she deserved to know. Perhaps lying constantly was skewing his perception, changing his personality. It'd become too easy to lie to her. He beckoned, and she leaned in. He whispered in her ear, "Alone. Later." His voice was muffled by the mask.

Areku frowned and chewed on his lips. He probably wasn't going to approve. Haibara definitely wouldn't. Then again, if the men in black found him, they'd kill everyone around him whether they knew anything or not. He had to try telling her. It was his last shot at staying with her.

"Okay, after dinner then." Ran smiled and pinched his cheek. He wondered if she would ever treat him like this again.

From the front of the clinic, the sound of someone knocking on the door came to them. "Oh good, they're here. I'll go bring them back here." She scurried off.

Conan squeezed Ran's hand. "Sorry," he said again.

"You already apologized to me; apologize to them. They're worried too."

"Sorry."

The doctor greeted Mr. Mouri at the door, and from the sounds of it, Sonoko and Masumi had come along too. _Sonoko_. Another pang of guilt. They came through the exam room door, and Mr. Mouri stepped forward. He was still in his obnoxiously bright Hawaiian shirt and swim trunks. For once, he didn't yell or curse. He stood over Conan and stared for a sec, then placed his hand on Conan's shoulder. "Damn. Kid, you look like something out of a cheap horror flick. You scared the living daylights out of us. What happened to you?"

Conan closed his eyes. His memory of it was foggy, he'd been so upset. "I was in the garden and a bee stung me." The words sounded all jumbled and murky, coming through the mask. They clearly couldn't understand much of it.

The doctor smiled, and cleared her throat. "If I may?"

"Ah yes," Kogorou said quickly, stepping back so they all could see her. "Please."

The doctor gave her best reassuring smile and started explaining. "Well, we've learned something important today. Young Conan here is allergic to bee stings. From what I gather, he was running around in the garden, and was stung by a bee on his ankle. Lucky for him, Miss Mouri and Mr. Kusanagi here found him and brought him here before something worse happened."

"What do you mean by 'worse'?" Sonoko interrupted.

"Don't be alarmed please," she paused a moment, looking at them. "He was in Anaphylactic shock, and could have suffocated."

The warning didn't help much, judging by Sonoko's face.

She continued on. "Now, I've given him a shot of epinephrine, and that's reduced the swelling and eased his breathing. The IV has basic hydration fluids in it, and he only needs the oxygen as long as he's having difficulty breathing. I may administer an antihistamine later tonight, if he needs it. He should stay here under supervision, or be transferred to a hospital on the mainland. I wouldn't expect longer than a night's stay, as long as there are no complications. You'll want to keep him away from bees, and keep an EpiPen with you in case he gets stung again. Allergic reactions like this are extremely dangerous for small children, so don't hesitate to treat him." She pulled out a pamphlet on allergies and allergic reactions that she'd been holding while talking to them, and handed it to Kogorou. "This has some more information on it, and it has a link to a website that explains it in even more detail, if you need it. Any questions?"

They all quietly shook their heads, still trying to take it all in.

She gave another broad, comforting smile. "I'll leave him alone with you for a little while. Call my name when you've decided what you want to do."

"I have his insurance card," Kogorou said, pulling it out of his wallet. "Do you need it yet?"

"That'll be handy, yes. Anything else?" Hearing no response, she said, "If you'll excuse me then," and slipped between them back out the door and closed it behind her.

They stood quietly for a little while, staring at Conan breathing.

At last, Masumi spoke. "I still don't get why he ran away like that."

Ran and Sonoko blushed. "He may have overheard," Sonoko started, covering her mouth. "We were talking about his family… didn't know he was there."

Ran interrupted, "He was really upset, and ran off. It's our fault. We should have followed him right away, but we thought he'd come right back."

"His family? Those no good irresponsible-" Kogorou started, but was silenced by Ran and Sonoko making wild, "SHUT UP" gestures.

Masumi frowned, deep in thought, she probably didn't buy it, but held her tongue. Conan wondered if she'd known about them all along.

Conan closed his eyes. He was tired. He hadn't eaten dinner. His muscles felt like a handful of writhing worms. They couldn't hear him through the mask. Maybe he could sleep a while…

A jolt of pain from the soft underside of his foot roused him again. "No going to sleep yet!" Sonoko said.

He groaned.

"So," Sonoko continued, "One of us can take the first shift while everyone else brings back dinner. Then we eat, and then we take turns watching him overnight."

Ran raised her hand. "I'll take the first shift."

"Then I guess we'll go get food, and whatever else we need for the night. Shall we?" Sonoko sounded like a general, getting everything moving.

"Let's go!" said Masumi, helping Sonoko push everyone out the door.

Conan heard Kogorou explaining the plan to the doctor, and then, finally, silence. Ran and he were all alone.

Ran closed the door, and pulled the chair to the side of the exam table. "So, what did you have to tell me?"

Shinichi hesitantly pulled off the oxygen mask. As though a cork on an agitated bottle of Champaign had been loosed, everything he'd wanted to say as Shinichi after eavesdropping on her and Sonoko came out. In his high-pitched, child's voice, to him, his confession sounded like a bad joke. "I'm really, really sorry I hurt you. I've acted like a fool from the day this happened. For so long, I thought that protecting you was the most important thing. I thought that me hurting you and lying to you would keep you safe, but I wanted to keep you at the same time, because I'm in love with you. I can't do both. I should have trusted you, and I shouldn't have let everyone convince me that I was doing the right thing. So, I'm ending the lies now, because I love you, and I really need you to help me through this. I'm too weak on my own, and not just because my body is like this. There were two attempts on my life that day. There was nothing I could do to stop them. I was completely helpless, and now I'm vulnerable too. It terrifies me. You're different from me – you're strong. You have so much responsibility, you carry so many people's burdens alongside your own, and you still stand tall. I wish I had that kind of strength. Sonoko was wrong; I do see what she sees. I've just been an idiot and not acted on it. I'm acting on it now. I love you; I need you; please stay with me."

Ran didn't answer. Her expressions kept changing – eyebrows furrowed and then relaxed, eyes blinking back tears, jaw clenched, then forced open to take slow breaths, hissing between her teeth. There were too many mixed signals. As usual, he couldn't deduce what she was thinking.

"Maybe I should have just died at Tropical Land, and spared you all this grief." He put his mask back on, closed his eyes, and waited for the blows to come.

They didn't. Instead, Ran slipped Shinichi's small, trembling hand into her own.

"Idiot," she whispered. "Don't ever say you wish you were dead." He could feel her pulse hammering through her palm. "I've been waiting so long for you to say those words. Somewhere along the line, loving you got twisted, an exercise in how much loneliness I could take."

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I didn't think you would want to be with me…" his tongue felt like it might choke him again. "…like this."

"Apologies are nice, but they don't change what's happened." Ran sighed. "I need to confess something too. I was in love with you for a long time, and I thought that I was supposed to hold out for my one true love. But love, and falling in love isn't so simple. Sonoko and I, we've been close for a very long time. Somewhere along the line, we became closer than being best friends. Our first kisses, I don't think we realized what they meant right away. We called them 'practice for our absent boyfriends' at first. We were both lonely, and we needed to be close with someone, and we couldn't stop. It just… got out of our hands then."

Ran looked down, her free hand fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "Then Sonoko's grandparents found out somehow, hired someone to surveil her, and they caught us together. That conversation you overheard – it was right after her grandparents and parents had confronted her about it. They're pretty mad, because their heirs are supposed to have children and continue the family line. I don't know what we're going to do about that." She bit her lip, biting back tears, then took a deep breath to steady herself.

"There is a good thing that's come from all of this. It's made us reexamine our relationship, and it's not friendship anymore. The things I want to do with her aren't things that friends do, they're things that lovers do, and it's mutual. We're in love."

She turned back to Shinichi, squeezing his hand again. "But with you, even when you were back to normal those few times, I hadn't felt that yet. Maybe it's because we've never done anything like kissing together. Maybe it's because we never got a chance to make our relationship something more, but it still feels like friendship-love to me. I'm sorry, I can't return your feelings right now. Things are too complicated."

As though something else had control over his limbs, he yanked off the breathing mask, sat up, and grasping her neck with his tiny arm and pulled her into a kiss. Her eyes were wide for a moment, and she didn't move. "Please Ran-" He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. She gently pushed his little body back down onto the table and put his breathing mask on securely over his nose and mouth. The hand that had been gently holding his was now restraining him.

She choked suddenly, and left him to go to the sink and swallow a gulp of water from a small paper cup. She turned back to him, looking nauseous. "I can't do that with the face… the body of eight year old Conan, my little brother. I feel like I kissed a child."

The body of a child. Of course she couldn't feel attracted to it. She was interested in people her own age, and she probably didn't even want to consider being with a child, even if it was an 18 year old at heart. That plus the nature of the temporary cures – there was no way he could stay an adult long enough for a physical relationship to form. She'd end up having to wait until his body grew up again, and that wasn't fair to her.

"I've seen you in your grown up self since then," she went on. "Why can't you try when you're an age I can kiss?"

He looked away from her. His own stomach was twisting into knots, realizing that he'd just ruined any chance of her trusting him enough to let him date her. Why'd he do that? He recalled a fleeting thought that they just needed to kiss and it'd all be better and she'd come back to him; but now it seemed like the stupidest thing he'd ever done. Another fleeting thought came to him: Maybe if he kissed her when he was his adult self… but that wasn't going to happen now, not with the way the cures worked.

He nudged the mask partly off, just enough to speak. "I've been waiting for, searching for a permanent cure. All I've got are temporary cures that risk my life every time I use them, and they work for shorter periods each time."

Dammit, he was going to start crying again. That made him feel even more like a child. "It feels all wrong, just looking at my own reflection. Sometimes my body doesn't really feel like my own. My voice… I hate it. If I could use the voice changer all the time I would. If I'm creeped out by my own body, I can't expect someone else to want it."

"Voice changer - Dr. Agasa, I presume?" She finally cracked a smile.

He mentally thanked her for changing the subject. "Yeah. I can't ever make fun of his inventions ever again."

She rubbed her forehead, thinking back. "That ridiculous lie he told me, he definitely knows what happened. Is he working on the cures? Oh, and the little girl living with him, Ai! She came out of nowhere, and she's weirdly mature. Is she like you?"

It felt like a betrayal of Haibara's trust to tell Ran. "I can't say," he said finally. "If there are any other people that are in the same situation that I am in, it's up to them whether or not you know. I didn't even tell my parents; Dr. Agasa did that behind my back, and even though I'm glad they know now, I wished he had let me tell them myself. They scared the hell out of me when they picked me up in disguise."

Ran nodded, still deep in thought. "I still want to be your friend," she blurted out. "I can't be your girlfriend, but I can still help you fight them!" She paused, chewing her lower lip again. "There is a _them_, right? I presume that you're trying to fight whoever did this to you, and that's why you're always turning up injured. You need a capable bodyguard, and I happen to be the Kantou regional karate champion!"

He shook his head. "That's the exact opposite of keeping you safe, Ran."

"Shinichi, don't you think that's a decision that I should get to make? You said it: you need to be less vulnerable, and that's something I can help you with. And now that I know, I can help cover it up for you."

"I do alright with Dr. Agasa's inventions." It was nice to hear his name from her again.

"—says the boy who just almost died from a _bee sting_." She smirked and prodded his swollen ankle. It smarted.

"Fine," he mumbled. "It's not as though you weren't already doing that anyway."

She nodded, an eager glimmer in her eye. "Now you have to tell me everything."

The front door banged open, and the slightly winded voices of their friends and family coming in with food and sleeping bags for the long night ahead echoed down the hall.

"Later," he sighed. Then a thought struck him and popped out of his mouth, "Does this mean you're going to stop stripping me naked and dragging me into the bath with you?"

Ran turned a very, very dark red, and her dad came in carrying a load of boxed and plastic-wrapped dishes from the restaurant.

"Glad we had this talk, _Conan_," she muttered.

Shinichi winced at his alias. Yup, she was still pissed. They really weren't going to get back together, were they?

They dug into dinner and lined up sleeping bags on the floor. Luckily, Conan's condition only improved through the night. By the morning, he had the doctor's approval to go back to the hotel, as long as he took an EpiPen and a prescription for anti-histamines, to keep the swelling down in his foot. Exhausted, they all went back to the hotel and slept late into the morning.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Japanese is a language that is pretty easy to learn by ear, but incredibly difficult to learn how to write in. That is because it has four different writing systems being used, all at once. They are:

Romanji – the Latin Alphabet, what we use to write English in. It's usually reserved for acronyms though. Using the Arabic numerals, instead of the Chinese characters, also falls in this category. You could also consider Latin punctuation marks classified as Romanji.

Hiragana – A phonetic (or close to it) syllabary for writing Japanese words in, and for writing meaningless, grammatical morphemes in. It's also used as Furigana, the pronunciation notations over other forms of writing. It has a fascinating history. It was made from the cursive, shorthand forms of Chinese characters. Long before there was a set syllabary, Japanese writers were using the pronunciations of Chinese characters to sound out Japanese words, and there were thousands of variations. One of the earliest examples is the Man'youshuu, a collection of Japanese poetry. In that collection, there is a poem about birds, written phonetically, entirely with different Chinese characters for birds. This practice actually carries on to today, but only in a handful of set phrases, like "Congratulations!" - 「お目出度う」 (o-eye-depart-degree-u, for the sounds o-me-de-to-u). Another variation of this words is 「御目出糖」 (honorable-eye-depart-sugar for the syllables o-me-de-tou).

Katakana – Notable for its much more angular appearance, Katakana is a mirror of Hiragana, with a slightly different history. Katakana was a phonetic shorthand that was popular amongst Buddhist monks. Buddhism is a foreign religion, which is probably why it became the form of notation favored for writing foreign words and phrases. In modern days, it's often used for people's personal names, when the parents decide to not use Chinese characters in the name. It's also common to put the words for animals and sound effects in Katakana. This syllabary is also used in Furigana – but not as often as Hiragana is.

Kanji – Literally "Han-Chinese Letters/Symbols/Characters". This is what gives Japanese students the world over the most headaches. There are over 2000 standard Chinese characters that students are supposed to learn. Unlike the Chinese, they haven't simplified the forms of the Kanji; just tried to restrict the number of Kanji in use after WW2. In Japanese, they're used for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and occasionally adverbs. Even if grammatical (as opposed to meaningful – things like the past tense suffix and so on) morphemes have a Kanji, they're usually written in Hiragana. Really common words, like "to be" or "to do" or "good" are usually just written in Hiragana as well.

This gives Japanese a strange mosaic like appearance in its writing. It'll have intense, crowded Kanji followed by smooth, flow-y Hiragana, some big, blocky Katakana, and an odd jumble of Romanji in any given sentence. See if you can figure out which is which in the sentences below:

「どうしてコナン君がFBIを信じるんですか。日本人の警察よりFBIのほうがいいですか。インターポールは？」

[Doushite Conan-kun-ga FBI-o shinjirun desu ka? Nihonjin-no keisatsu-yori FBI-no hou-ga ii desu ka? Intaapooru-wa?]

(Why does Conan trust the FBI? Are the FBI better than Japanese policemen? What about Interpol?)

また来週！(See you next week!)  
dreamingfifi


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